Giant Squid Caught on Film

caffeined writes "I think almost every geek's heart must skip a beat when they hear about giant squids (think "Jules Verne"). It appears the two Japanese researchers have managed (for the first time) to get actual footage of a live giant squid in action. It was "only" 26 feet long (a little more than 8m) which is big enough for me." Update: Pictures and no registration required at National Geographic.

I cant wait for the video release

[by Anonymous Coward]

This will user in a whole new era of porn
http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e050925.html [cdnn.info]

where's the vid

[b17bmbr (608864)]

there's no video link. i need to see that.

Re:where's the vid

[Bananatree3 (872975)]

I have been searching up and down google for a video, and I have yet to see even a reference to a site with it. According to this article [abc.net.au], It is a 30 time-laps movie of 3 hours while the giant squid was tied up. If you find a link, please post.

will photos do?

[weighn (578357)]

National Geographic has some piccys
here... [nationalgeographic.com]

Re:WOW.

[Ironsides (739422)]

though I can't imagine there's too many predators that want to tangle with a 40 foot long tentacle monster.

It only takes one, and the squid is dead. That one happens to be sperm whales, maybe other giant squid as well. Possibly even some other large predators we have never found as of yet (or think are extinct).

Skip a beat, eh?

[Dachannien (617929)]

I think almost every geek's heart must skip a beat when they hear about giant squids

Mmmmm.... Tentacle hentai....

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Neo-Rio-101 (700494)]

I can't believe some people get off on that stuff.

My girlfriend knows such a Japanese lady who draws tentacle hentai and gets off on it. She's cute, but has many imaginary boyfriends apparently. We always joke that she has a octopus for a boyfriend. She thinks that men and women holding hands and kissing is disgusting though (?!) - which as you can imagine, tends to turn most guys off her, probably causing her to fantasize about poor octopi.

On a seperate note, I think Freud would have had a field day over in Japan.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[JanneM (7445)]

Also, Japan is just a veritable breeding ground for fetishes in general.

Actually, living here I suspect that it's not that various fetishes are more common here than elsewhere. It's rather that it's much less of a social stigma, and so people are more open about it - which of course increases the available audience for material catering to it, which in turn greatly increases the visibility.

Also, the concept of "fetish" is a rather slippery one (entendre intended). In psychological litterature, having a strong preference for red hair counts as a fetish, but not a similarily strong preference for blonde or black hair. Nothing is a fetish in itself; it's very dependent on the social context. Having a strong preference for tall, blonde women would make you a fetishist in Japan; in Sweden you'd just be seen as boring. If everybody would like tentacle sex, it would cease to be a fetish at all.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Neo-Rio-101 (700494)]

Although it looks like it on the outside, Japan is not open about sex at all. Otherwise all my Japanese colleagues would be having orgies every second week - but none of them can even get a date. In fact, it's not very open socially much at all. Non-comformity is flattened by society as it ignores anyone loud who dares stick out. Anyone trying to get attention is viewed as an attention whore and is summarily ignored. Anyone who truly NEEDS attention is ignored as well - which is the sad part.

IMHO the whole sex perversion thing is basically due to hordes of men not being able to get laid. Pure and simple. That frustration has got to come out somewhere. The reason they can't get laid is that most of the men are unromantic, selfish, uncaring, and have no respect for women basically. The only reason why foreigners get laid is because they are the exact opposite of Japanese men, and have blonde hair.

The whole octopus thing extends farther back than mere penis censoring. I have seen old Japanese art depicting Japanese women being mauled by octopus. Why octopus, you may ask? I don't know, but since the Japanese eat so much of it I figure "you are what you eat".

mmmmm ... calamari

[Average_Joe_Sixpack (534373)]

served with a little butter, garlic and wedge of lemon

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[AcidDan (150672)]

Must... Not... Give... In...
Bah! Sod It:

In depths of ocean, calamari eats you!

-- Dan =)

A buffet!

[darkitecture (627408)]

Calamari for EVERYONE!

Pictures

[youknowmewell (754551)]

Pictures here [msn.com].

Re:Pictures

[dummyname12 (886454)]

More pictures here [starwars.com].

Heart Skip

[mrclark13 (812867)]

I think gaint squid are interesting. That being said, I think maybe the submitter needs to get out more and enjoy some human companionship if his heart skips a beat at the thought of squid. Either that or his ex-girlfriends must have been really monstrous.

Pictures

[by Anonymous Coward]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/ph otogalleries/giant_squid/index.html [nationalgeographic.com]

Giant Squid happy snaps

[by Anonymous Coward]

Pictures here

http://www.smh.com.au/media/2005/09/28/11278045094 63.html [smh.com.au]

Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Damn right. I remember that day back in 6th grade where we got into a huge fight over the existance of the giant squid.

I had said that carcasses were found, and after making fun of me for using the word "carcass," you proceeded to articulate further on my sexuality (which, btw, you couldnt have been more wrong about.)

Tom, you then declared, through some haphazard strange conglomeration of swears and 6th grade dialogue, that you would drink your own pee if it were real.

Im going to find your number, and ask if you are going to do it. Just to fuck with you.

(name changed)

Worthless without pics

[Wind_Walker (83965)]

Researcher 1: OMFG! We just caught a Giant Squid on camera!
Researcher 2: Quick, let's get an article up and not give them any pictures!
Researcher 1: Perfect!

Eh

[phalse phace (454635)]

Eh. Nothing exciting here.

Now, if it were giant squids with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads...

I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[by Anonymous Coward]

26 feet long (a little more than 8m)

26 feet = 7.9248 meters

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[mallocme (740799)]

you're forgetting the latest exchange rate. The foot has really been taking a hit lately.

Titanic Struggle

[Quirk (36086)]

My step Dad, a naval officer (pilot), now retired, saw a whale surface with a giant squid engulfing it's head. The whale breached a couple of times with the giant squid unrelentingly attached, attacking and maybe feeding.

I've read that during WWII giant squid would attack red life boats filled with sailors from sunk ships. Apparently the red colour attracts them.

By all accounts they are extremely aggresive, suggesting they don't see themselves as prey and know no predators.

I think I'll keep my exposure to them second hand.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Wazukkithemaster (826055)]

From my immense pool of knowledgem gathered mostly from years of watching the discovery channel, i have learned that giant squid would not be able to survive at the surface of the ocean. their blood is EXTREMELY thin and thus easily influenced by their surrounding environment. Furthermore, their blood temperature must stay around 10 degrees Celcius and too much variation would cause death. Also, The water pressure that they are used to be subject to is much greater in the depths of the ocean (obviously) than at its surface. That said, its unlikely the stories of giant squid feeding on red lifeboats filled with sailors (and what-not) are unlikely, as for the whale... i'm not sure

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Frogbert (589961)]

By all accounts they are extremely aggresive, suggesting they don't see themselves as prey and know no predators.

Vin Diesel could take one on... probably two on a good day.

Kraken

[Ironsides (739422)]

I'm reminded of the old "tales" that seamen told when they came back from sea. Circa ~1400s, give or take a few centuries. There was a giant seamonst that looked a lot like a giant squid, except it had a beak below the eyes on the outside of it's head. Well, giant squid have a beak, it's just betweent he tentacles instead. Here's a picture of a Kraken. [mus.pa.us] Look familiar?

Re:Ummm, no, not EVERY time...

[Keebler71 (520908)]

I'm trying to picture where a whale's neck is...

IT'S A TRAP!

[SoundGuyNoise (864550)]

That's what Calimari say when they get caught like that.

Well if it becomes a threat

[Solr_Flare (844465)]

We can just send in a squad of Toxic Dart Dolphins.

What do they look like? Duh...

[NewsWatcher (450241)]

"Nobody knew what they looked like in the wild."

Well, at a guess, just like a normal squid, only bigger.

Thank god the hunt is over. That was obviously worth the effort.

Octopus attacking shark and other videos

[brit74 (831798)]

Quite a few people have commented on octopus being predators. Here's a video of an octopus attacking a shark:

(Sorry, realplayer only.)
(Low Bandwidth)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_playe rs_blue/shark_lo.html [pbs.org]
(High Bandwidth)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_playe rs_blue/shark_hi.html [pbs.org]

WMV of an octopus blending in with its surroundings (which is pretty amazing to watch). http://www.big-boys.com/articles/octopus1.html [big-boys.com]

An even bigger species than the Giant Squid...

[DesScorp (410532)]

...is the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. Where giant squid are thought to get up to 60 ft long, no one knows just how large the CS can get. Remains of the two species have been compared, and the CS is bigger in just about everything, including the beak. They live only in Antarctic waters (that we know), and the remains of one washed up in the Ross Sea in 2003 [bbc.co.uk].

Re:The Pictures

[Average_Joe_Sixpack (534373)]

Here you go giant squid [f9.co.uk]

Re:The Pictures

[m0nk3ym1nd (548825)]

Here's one at National Geographic [nationalgeographic.com]

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica (681592)]

Aren't giant squids one of those animals that lives so deep that it can't survive without really high pressure (too high for an aquarium)?

Re:How long?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Without lungs to collapse is the pressure really an issue?

You mean like how humans would do just fine in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask?

No. Pressure is always an issue.

Re:How long?

[Cadallin (863437)]

Actually, yes, for awhile. The primary problem is that we have too many moist mucous membranes that will loose fluid. A face mask, covering ones nose and mouth would let one stay alive in space, even without a suit. However, one's eardrums would burst and one's eyes would boil away and probably burst as well. Add pain to the mixture as you think appropriate.

Arguably, one could make a space suit that was simply a skin tight layer + helmet. The problem with that would be that it would have to be *perfectly* skin tight. I.e. Any gas between the suit and you, and you will be VERY uncomfortable, as the gas makes the suit expand like a balloon. Assuming that was worked out, it would have of number advantages over conventional space suits. The joints would be MUCH more flexible, and less complex, as they wouldn't require complicated pressure equalization systems to allow the joints to move.

Hey, I just thought out how to get around the skintight issue. Cover the human in vaseline, or some other viscous nonvolatile (which means the vaseline wouldn't work very long, depending how much was evaporating through the suit) fluid, to fill in all the empty spaces left by the suit!

So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply. I'm certain it would work, just not sure for how long. The limiting factor is how fast you lose volatiles, but it could easily be made to work as long as the longest spacewalks the US has ever attempted, and would be a hell of a lot lighter, simpler, and cheaper.

Re:How long?

[ScarKnee (588584)]

"So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply "

I guess if you got a couple of Slashdotters to try it out in space you'd have two less lonely people in the world.

I dunno, it's entirely possible that Air Supply already has quite a bit of experience with vasoline, skin-tight body suits, etc... maybe they could go up and try it out.

Re:How long?

[10Ghz (453478)]

Cover the human in vaseline

I find your ideas intriguing, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter....

Re:How long?

[by Anonymous Coward]

What if you fart?

Re:How long?

[king-manic (409855)]

Actually, yes, for awhile. The primary problem is that we have too many moist mucous membranes that will loose fluid. A face mask, covering ones nose and mouth would let one stay alive in space, even without a suit. However, one's eardrums would burst and one's eyes would boil away and probably burst as well. Add pain to the mixture as you think appropriate.

Arguably, one could make a space suit that was simply a skin tight layer + helmet. The problem with that would be that it would have to be *perfectly* skin tight. I.e. Any gas between the suit and you, and you will be VERY uncomfortable, as the gas makes the suit expand like a balloon. Assuming that was worked out, it would have of number advantages over conventional space suits. The joints would be MUCH more flexible, and less complex, as they wouldn't require complicated pressure equalization systems to allow the joints to move.

Hey, I just thought out how to get around the skintight issue. Cover the human in vaseline, or some other viscous nonvolatile (which means the vaseline wouldn't work very long, depending how much was evaporating through the suit) fluid, to fill in all the empty spaces left by the suit!

So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply. I'm certain it would work, just not sure for how long. The limiting factor is how fast you lose volatiles, but it could easily be made to work as long as the longest spacewalks the US has ever attempted, and would be a hell of a lot lighter, simpler, and cheaper.


The fact that the average temperature of all space is 4' kelvin is also an issue. although it's vastly warmer near leo it's still cold enough to have the person get serious frost bite after 0.01 seconds and the limbs would start freezing soon after. This would be the dark side, the light side woudl experience the same or much warmer temperatures depending on the color of your suit.

Also, radiation is an issue.

Add to this fact that it's not so much space making you explode it's the air in your lungs pushing out and nothing pushing in. This makes breathing very very hard. You would have to have the air mask at enough pressure to inflate the lungs, but not too much to have them tear the lungs as nothign outside is pushing back.

So what you actually need is:

person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply + radiation shielding + rigid structure to allow bretahing + isulation and heating

basically a space suit.

Re:How long?

[martyr69 (895913)]

Our top priority should be hunting them down and defeating them. They're much too large to not be a danger to us: we might be looking at the new WHALES here people.

Re:How long?

[mikeb (6025)]

Pressure is a BIG issue. Chemistry changes at pressure, reactions go differently.

Divers going below about 90 feet (30 metres) breathing air suffer nitrogen narcosis as dissolved nitrogen in the nerves cause an effect akin to drunkenness or partial anaesthesia.

Because the human breathing response is driven by the absolute partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, not its ratio to oxygen, deep diving means breathing much more air than is needed simply to flush out the apparent elevated level of co2 in the blood - the physiology is tricked by the pressure. Anyone practising emergency surfacing from a deep dive is astonished that they don't need to breath as they rise - you continuously exhale as the gas in the lungs expands (I was taught to sing on the way up) and the breathing response isn't triggered because the detected co2 level keeps falling.

Now this may not affect squid much, it's hard to believe that there are no pressure effects on the chemistry underpinning their biology.

Re:pressure

[cornface (900179)]

so at the very least, they could put a giant squid inside a submarine.

He could wear a little captain's hat and pretend to steer.

Best laugh I've had all day!

[Wabbit Wabbit (828630)]

I'd mod you up if I could. And you owe me a coke and a keyboard.

Re:pressure

[imsabbel (611519)]

ok, lets take your example:

Submarines. You can build submarines capable of diving very deep. But those things are
a) made from steel (many times stronger than _any_ glass
b) self supporting (try cracking an egg by pressing on it from the outside, compare to pressure by chicken form inside)
c) go nowhere near "deep water" besides very small ones (which would be a unsuitable size for an aquarium).

Just imagine: a 1000m deep sea aquarium would have a pressure of 1000 metric tons per m^2 on every surface. Thats a stack of 15 fully supplied M1 tanks.
And it scales _baddly_. if you have a cube, and double the side length, you get square the surface, and thus square the force pushing on one side. But the line of material holding the the face in at the edge is only doubling, so you have to double glass thickness, too...

With those forces, you may build a pressure chamber (i.e. massivly externally supported structure with small volume) from glass (although i dont think it will work well), but an aquarium needs support (air/heating/cleaning), and any of those breaks would make the whole thing instable (remember, glass likes to crack).

Re:Pics here

[MyLongNickName (822545)]

You know what. I've seen goatse links before. They are grotesque. But this just crosses the line. Can we get the IP banned?

Now that you mention sperm whales..

[Spy der Mann (805235)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_Whale [wikipedia.org]

There was an episode on Discovery's Animal Face-off [discovery.com] about a Giant Squid versus a Sperm Whale: The winner was the sperm whale, which stunned the squid with its sonic emitter, and then ate it whole. Of course, before this, the whale had to swim at a very high speed to get rid of the squid's clawed tentacles (this is why some sperm whales have scars on their heads, because you can't just take off a squid's tentacle, you have to rip it off - ouch).

It was an exciting and interesting episode :)

Re:Too bad

[Otter (3800)]

The NYT article makes it sound like the squid got accidentally entangled, but if you look at the diagram on the National Geogrpahic site, the scientists deliberately snagged it. The baits were rigged with what seem to be scaled-up versions of squid jigs.

Re:Tentacle?

[Mateito (746185)]

All Japanese seafood research involves a hook. This is just an exension of their use of whales for scienfic purposes. mmmm... scientific purposes in garlic butter.