Saturday, March 15, 2008

Person eaten by giant squid...

...almost...OK, person roughed up a bit by a giant squid...or maybe a pretty big squid that isn't quite a giant...well, how about person bothered by a big squid. Darn, now the headline has lost it's zing.

Here's how it went down, according to FirstScience.com:

Hemmed in on all sides by two metre-long, tentacled sea demons, Scott Cassell must have thought he’d breathed his last...

30 minutes later he emerged from what would have been his watery grave, just off the coast of Mexico, saved only by his armour-plated diving suit.

A veteran deep sea film maker, Cassell was on a mission to get an image on camera of the Mexican Rojo Diablo, the 'red demon' or Humboldt squid. At up to 50 kilograms, these vicious sea beasts can throw enough weight to do some serious damage to an unprotected diver. Cassell was anything but unscathed after his own terrifying encounter. “I later discovered bruises on me the size of oranges, as well as several scratches in my anti-squid armour suit,” he says.

From his studies, Cassell has hints of much larger creatures, perhaps a giant squid big enough to give rise to the legends of the "Kraken."

The giant squid is a creature that has fascinated people for centuries. Thankfully mysterious, we see just enough of the giant squid to keep our curiosity alive. And there are even rumors and slight bits of information about the even more rare, and bigger, colossal squid. Recently, Japanese scientists filmed the capture of a giant squid, as shown in this YouTube clip.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the same species that based on: A unique 16-year time series of deep video surveys in Monterey Bay reveals that the Humboldt squid, Dosidicus gigas, has substantially expanded its perennial geographic range in the eastern North Pacific by invading the waters off central California. This sustained range expansion coincides with changes in climate-linked oceanographic conditions and a reduction in competing top predators. It is also coincident with a decline in the abundance of Pacific hake,the most important commercial groundfish species off western North America. Recognizing the interactive effects of multiple
changes in the environment is an issue of growing concern in ocean
conservation and sustainability research ........................
Abstract from Zeidberg and Robison, 2007 in Science:
Invasive range expansion by the Humboldt squid,Dosidicus gigas, in the eastern North Pacific
Louis D. Zeidberg* and Bruce H. Robison†
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039
Edited by David M. Karl, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, and approved June 26, 2007 (received for review March 5, 2007)

Jeffry R. Johnston said...

I want an anti-squid armor suit!

xantheandnahdia said...

i second that motion











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