Photo in the News: Giant Squid Captured, Filmed for First Time

National Geographic News ^ | 22 Dec 2006 | Blake de Pastino

[jimtorr]

December 22, 2006—Like pulling a shadow from the darkness, researchers in Japan have captured and filmed a live giant squid—likely for the first time—shedding new light on the famously elusive creatures.

Tsunemi Kubodera, a scientist with Japan's National Science Museum, caught the 24-foot (7-meter) animal earlier this month near the island of Chichijima, some 600 miles (960 kilometers) southeast of Tokyo (see Japan map).

His team snared the animal using a line baited with small squid and shot video of the russet-colored giant as it was hauled to the surface.

The squid, a young female, "put up quite a fight" as the team attempted to bring it aboard, Kudobera told the Associated Press, and the animal died from injuries sustained during the capture.

Giant squid, the world's largest invertebrates, are thought to reach sizes up to 60 feet (18 meters), but because they live at such great ocean depths they have never been studied in the wild.

Kubodera has spent three years searching for the creatures, and his team scored a coup in 2004 when it used a remote underwater camera to take the first-ever photographs of a live giant squid.

(See a gallery of the first photos taken of a live giant squid.)

The capture may be a sign that giant squid are more plentiful than had been thought, Kubodera said, and the event could help open up more fruitful research into the poorly understood animal.

"Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future," he said.

[jimtorr]

See the link for a picture of the elusive creature.

[fat city]

Old news:

[OldFriend]

I think Chichijima was the island where the Japanese slaughtered our prisoners of war. George HW Bush was trying to bomb that island, if I recall.

[FreePaul]

Sushi anyone?

[TheCrusader]

This 24 foot giant squid wouldn't pose a threat to a human swimmer. All you have to do is kick them in the nose.

[Thoro]

I wonder how they taste deep fried with some marinara sauce. :)

Cool find.

[JCEccles]

[Williams]

Kind of cute, nice of them to kill it. I hope they at least ate it.

[Paladin2]

That eye is on the large size!

[little jeremiah]

Why didn't they just video the poor creature in the ocean? Killed it for no reason. Cruel.

[Riley]

The initial photographing of a Giant Squid started a fascinating thread on FR a couple of years ago. It mutated into a discussion of the Humboldt Squid- which is apparently no fun to run in to in the water.

They put on a pretty pre-attack bioluminescent light show, though.

[operation clinton cleanup]

You call that a giant squid?

This is a giant squid!

[billhilly]

I wonder how they taste deep fried with some marinara sauce. :)"

Just like Calamari would be my bet.

[Trust but Verify]

I just recently saw a documentary by this same researcher where he filmed a live giant squid and actually caught one of its tentacles on a hook, but the whole squid escaped.

While the GS is certainly fascinating, I would not want to run into one of them. Yuck!

[kcar]

Didn't I see this on Doctor Who? Should have even at any rate.

[gotribe]

Killed it for no reason.

That's called fishing.

[King of Florida]

Hmmm, fried calamari . . . .

[Riley]

I wonder how they taste deep fried with some marinara sauce. :)"

I'm given to understand that the flesh of the Giant Squid reeks of ammonia.

[Centurion2000]

Why didn't they just video the poor creature in the ocean? Killed it for no reason. Cruel.

Life is cruel. Build a bridge already.

[fat city]

"That eye is on the large size!"

Odd, because the Japanese are usually so precise in their portrayal of mutant organisms.

[mware]

Check out the beak of this colossal squid.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Mama mia....'at's a lotta calamari!

[Wormwood]

I am pleased, as is my cephalopod God.

[Centurion2000]

kewl.

[fat city]

Man, that thing is huge! So, apparently squid are ranked like shrimp: Colossal> Giant> Jumbo> Large> Medium> Salad?

[mware]

You should have seen the hooks on the end of the two largest tenticles. I will see if I can find a photo of it.

[fat city]

Where did they find that thing?

[mware]

Something even more frightening.

[sine_nomine]

Georgia. It feeds on killer rabbits. That how it got so huge.

[mware]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/883339/posts

[johnandrhonda]

"I think Chichijima was the island where the Japanese slaughtered our prisoners of war. George HW Bush was trying to bomb that island, if I recall."

You are correct. Well documented in the book "Flyboys" by James Bradley, who also wrote "Flags of Our Fathers."

[Old Professer]

That picture looks like someone pulled one of the Easter Bunny's ears out of his head, roots and all.

[Dad yer funny]

. . [ gulp!] . . . IT'S

. . . Sir Edmund Hillary "Squidward" Clinton ,... aka Medusa , The Arkancide Dirtnap Queen

[ she plays a mean clarinet ]

" mama , mama come quick , get that lickin' stick " .... James Brown

[pcottraux]

Already been posted, but still pingworthy. Unfortunately, there is a little sadness at seeing another great mystery planet Earth had to offer being uncovered.

[onyx]

LOL-LOL-LOL

Thanks for the ping!

[fat city]

Hehehe- well, I can get behind the Easter Squid if you can. A tradition begging to be written.

[Mr. Jeeves]

"When the sea is full, the squid shall walk the Earth." ;)

[little jeremiah]

It didn't sound as though they caught it to eat but to look at.

[editor-surveyor]

You forgot the /sarcasm tag.

[little jeremiah]

I don't like to see creatures killed for no reason.

[diogenes ghost]

"It didn't sound as though they caught it to eat but to look at." Damn, doofus, didya ever hear of 'RESEARCH'?

[B-Chan]

Paging Kirk Douglas!

[mhking]

[lndrvr1972]

You aint kidding...

[packrat35]

So does San Francisco

[MarkL]

While the GS is certainly fascinating, I would not want to run into one of them. Yuck!

IIRC, there are a number of reports of men being snatched off of life boats during WWII.

Mark

[ExSoldier]

I don't like to see creatures killed for no reason.

I understand that sentiment. However this isn't Bambi we're discussing and it's not something to trifle with, either. This critter is not only a meat eating predator, it routinely battles one of the biggest of the toothed whales (Sperm) and I'm certain it wins at least some of the time. The novels of Peter Benchley notwithstanding, there have been reports from various parts of the world of these critters attacking men. Unsubstantiated? Maybe. But it behooves us as the top of the food chain, to keep an EYE on the up and comers. If this were wholesale slaughter, I'd have to agree with you. But I kinda doubt killing one of these or heck a dozen is going to put a crimp in the population.

For hundreds of years, this was largely a mythical creature. Sea stories and wild tales passed down thru the ages until it became the stuff of Jules Verne stories. Like BigFoot, this was one that was only going to be settled with a body. A dead body. By all accounts this was a small example of the species. Had this been one of the BIG BOYS of legend, it's possible the encounter between man and beast could have gone the other way. I kinda doubt this was like shooting fish in a barrel. So don't feel too bad.

[Stonewall Jackson]

I, too, saw that program (on the Discovery Channel, I think) and was amazed by the photos they took.

According to the article on Fox News, this is the same team.

[Trust but Verify]

I'd rather be eaten by sharks. Can you imagine? Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-3837.html