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.

[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.