Deep Sea Monster Baffles Scientists 138
sbszine writes "The Sydney Morning Herald has a report of a bizarre sea creature that has washed up on the coast of Chile. The creature is grey, lumpy, and the size of a school bus. Scientists have ruled out the possibility that it may be a whale -- the creature is an invertebrate, and perhaps even a new species."
From the CCC website (Score:3, Informative)
-Sean
Re:Similar Event: Picture included (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTV
Re:From the CCC website (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Chileans - smarter than the Oregon Highway Patr (Score:3, Informative)
Yep, the Oregon State Highway Division already tried that [airbubble.com], and it didn't work [gloop.org]!
colossal squid? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:From the CCC website (Score:3, Informative)
The bottom of the referenced page [ccc-chile.org] mechanically translates to:
STRANGE FINDING
CCC also it was alerted of a second varamiento of whale in the Pinuno beach, 3.9 kilometers to the north of the place where the unit of jorobada whale is located, reason why Sunday attended the place in hours in the morning.
When acceding to the zone, the inspection equipment could verify that it would not be a cetacean, but of an invertebrate of great dimensions. To grief that other declarations affirm that it would be the leather of a died whale in the ocean, CCC are making the managements to send samples from weave to France with the purpose of making genetic analysis to determine if a mysterious animal is a giant squid (Octopus giganteus) of which a water registry exists only of Florida, the United States, in 1896.
Re:Possibly... (Score:4, Informative)
Do invertebrates have ears? I don't know the answer, but I do know quite a good deal about the U.S. Navy's sonar program (called SURTASS or sometimes SURTASS LFA) as I just spent the past week researching it for a debate tournament.
SURTASS LFA (Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System, Low Frequency Active) sends out sonar pings to search for mines, submarines, and the like at around 180 dB, though it can get louder or quieter than that. It does indeed cause severe damage to marine life, particularly whales and dolphins, who communicate with sonar and therefore are susceptible to this type of sonar. It causes severe acoustic trauma and sometimes bleeding around the ears and even death. It is also known to cause strandings of whales...
The reason I bring this up is that if any sea creature doesn't have ears/can't hear sound/whatever, they are immune to this type of sonar. However, if they do have ears, they can be quite vulnerable to it. Do any invertebrates have ears? Do squid? This could be related.
Photos of Sea Lump (Score:2, Informative)
"Giant sea creature baffles Chilean scientists"
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/07/02/chil
Unless someone has already posted
Re:Fine journalism (Score:3, Informative)
Re:humpback whale found nearby (Score:1, Informative)
Nope. That's sperm. (Score:1, Informative)
Who is naming these whales anyway, Ron Jeremy?
pic of it... (Score:3, Informative)
Pictures finally posted (Score:3, Informative)
You've all been waiting for this, but of course in a photo it just looks like a big gray blob.
photos (Score:4, Informative)
Reuters photo [reuters.com]