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.

where's the vid

[b17bmbr]

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

The Pictures

[dodald]

It sure would be nice to see the pictures.

Re:Pictures

[captnbmoore]

please dont link to something that requires IExploder to watch a freaking video.

Tentacle?

[tedrlord]

So, wait. These scientists worked so long to track down and photograph this rare creature in its natural habitat, then tore off one of its tentacles before it could get away? That can't end well for the creature.

Re:How long?

[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?

[mrchaotica]

I'm no biologist, but I'm sure pressure affects more than just lung cavities. For example, divers get the bends when they come up and the pressure is released too quickly, causing the nitrogen in their blood to come out of solution. Now, I'm not saying that squid get the bends, but I imagine taking one to the surface would have some effect.

Re:Pictures

[Eric Savage]

Please don't complain about the quality of people's links unless you have better ones.

IExploder...that's quality. Is it from Micro$oft? Does it run on windoze?

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[JanneM]

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.

Date issues?

[Mechcozmo]

What took them so friggin' long?

"The photo sequence, taken off Japan's Ogasawara Islands in September 2004, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in "a ball of tentacles.""

The DNA testing to make sure it was a real giant squid or what?

Re:How long?

[Newrad]

The animals cells are pressurized for a certain depth. If they come up too fast, the cells burst, and the animal bursts. But if the creature is brought up slowly, it will probably be able to equalize its pressure it be normal in an aquarium.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not forget the temperature differential. I'm working off the cuff, but the temperature on, say, the moon, is something like 250 F in the sun and -200 F in the shade. That skin-suit you're talking about had better be a damn good insulator.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[rexguo]

Maybe that's why the whale surfaced: to kill the squid using its natural weaknesses.

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[LarsWestergren]

I really can't believe people watch that trash. All these resources, they could have made some GREAT nature shows (or some great tech shows), and instead they had to make it into a fucking pro-wrestling show for the drooling masses. "These are the weapons and armour of contestant one..."

Hey, I have an idea, for next season maybe they can add some CGI of the animals talking trash at each other and screaming threats before the face-off. That would be awesome!

Re:How long?

[king-manic]

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?

[AaronLawrence]

But how can you freeze so suddenly if the only heat loss is by radiation? (Very slow).

Re:How long?

[fredrik70]

very true, might get nasty though if you decide to hold on to that handle in the shadow on the space station

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a long night...

One of the two males washed ashore was found to have been accidentally inseminated - backing the findings of research in previous strandings.
 
And scientists now believe the males had either accidentally inseminated themselves during "violent" lovemaking sessions with females or been inseminated by other males after "bumping" into them in the dark depths of the ocean.
...
"But males get round their inferior size by being endowed with a particularly long penis, which means they can inject the female without having to get too close to her chomping beak. The male's sexual organ is actually a bit like a high-pressure fire hose and is normally nearly as long as his body - excluding legs and head.

"But having such a big penis does have one drawback: it seems that co-ordinating eight legs, two feeding tentacles and a huge penis, whilst fending off an irate female, is a bit too much to ask, and one of the two males stranded on the Spanish coast had accidentally injected himself with sperm packages in the legs and body. And this does not seem to have been an isolated incident since two of the eight males that had stranded in the north-east Atlantic before had also accidentally inseminated themselves.

"It is also possible that the sperm packages had come from other males that they had 'bumped' into, in the dark depths of the ocean. However, the sperm packages ended up in the squid - it is just another part of the mysterious lives of these creatures of the deep sea."