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Live giant squid brought to surface


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user posted image rUntil now, scientists’ knowledge of the giant squid was based only on murky photographs and the lengthy tentacles of dead specimens washed up on lonely beaches. Japanese marine biologists, however, have lured a giant squid to the surface of the ocean, off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo, capturing it on camera as it reached out to eat one of its relatives.

They filmed it as they reeled it in. And, according to Tsunemi Kubodera, the team’s leader, it “put up quite a fight”.

news icon View: Full Article | Source: Times Online

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It's a shame it died, we could have learnt a lot from it.

Yes, it is. BUT all of the other specimens were deteriorated, decayed or, in one case, partially digested. If they preserve and study it quickly, we still may be able to learn something.

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WOW,cant wait till they catch a live one and keep it alive.

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If you read the full article, theres a bit about that they find tentecle marks on whales, probabally battle scars. They must be some really big ass squids

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I didnt know that the giant squid was still a big mystery to mankind in today's modern age. How come they haven't been able to document it in its natural habitat...is it because they live at depths that man-made machines cannot reach? Still this new footage is a step forward in discovering more about these fascinating creatures of the deep sea. Hope we can learn more about them...they are SO massive yet SO mysterious!

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Yes, it is. BUT all of the other specimens were deteriorated, decayed or, in one case, partially digested. If they preserve and study it quickly, we still may be able to learn something.

Sure, but unfortunately not nearly as much.

If you read the full article, theres a bit about that they find tentecle marks on whales, probabally battle scars. They must be some really big ass squids

Not big enough to attack a sperm whale. The scars found are most definetely the result of a squid being attacked and trying to defend itself and escape.

I didnt know that the giant squid was still a big mystery to mankind in today's modern age. How come they haven't been able to document it in its natural habitat...is it because they live at depths that man-made machines cannot reach? Still this new footage is a step forward in discovering more about these fascinating creatures of the deep sea. Hope we can learn more about them...they are SO massive yet SO mysterious!

Yeah. It's difficult for us to get to them because of the great depths which they live at, but it's also difficult to get them to come to the surface because they're not adapted to survive at the lower pressures. It wouldn't be easy to keep any comforably alive at a standard aquarium.

Edited by Raptor X7
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Yeah. It's difficult for us to get to them because of the great depths which they live at, but it's also difficult to get them to come to the surface because they're not adapted to survive at the lower pressures. It wouldn't be easy to keep any comforably alive at a standard aquarium.

Good point...they never come to the surface because giant squids are not designed to withstand low pressures, and can only thrive at deep depths where the high pressure is the optimal pressure for them to exist. But i still dont understand why marine biologists havent been able to catch a glimpse of them in the deep sea as i'm sure that they have the technology to explore as far down as the seabed of the ocean! Maybe its because the giant squid doesnt live at a specific spot in the deep sea...dat could be an explainable reason.

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Yeah. It's difficult for us to get to them because of the great depths which they live at, but it's also difficult to get them to come to the surface because they're not adapted to survive at the lower pressures. It wouldn't be easy to keep any comforably alive at a standard aquarium.

Plus they're damn hard to find, which is odd considering that they're such huge beasties.

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Not big enough to attack a sperm whale. The scars found are most definetely the result of a squid being attacked and trying to defend itself and escape.

Not so fast buddy! First of all, I believe the Giant Squid didn't cause those scars on the whales as they have suction cups on their tentacles incapable of gouging. It's the Colossal Squid which is larger and has hooks on its tentacles that caused those scars, and for everything we DON'T know about the Giant Squid, we know even less about the Colossal Squid.

Ever see the video of the Giant Octopus that was put in the aquarium with the sharks? They believed the Giant Octopus' strength in camouflage would keep it safe from the sharks, but it turned out that the Giant Octopus started killing off the sharks! Don't be so quick to rule out the possibility of this happening on a larger scale...that the Colossal Squid can get big enough to kill the Sperm Whale. We didn't even know enough about the Giant Octopus to know that it would take out a shark, so saying there are squids capable of taking out whales isn't any bit of an exaggeration.

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Not so fast buddy! First of all, I believe the Giant Squid didn't cause those scars on the whales as they have suction cups on their tentacles incapable of gouging. It's the Colossal Squid which is larger and has hooks on its tentacles that caused those scars, and for everything we DON'T know about the Giant Squid, we know even less about the Colossal Squid.

Ever see the video of the Giant Octopus that was put in the aquarium with the sharks? They believed the Giant Octopus' strength in camouflage would keep it safe from the sharks, but it turned out that the Giant Octopus started killing off the sharks! Don't be so quick to rule out the possibility of this happening on a larger scale...that the Colossal Squid can get big enough to kill the Sperm Whale. We didn't even know enough about the Giant Octopus to know that it would take out a shark, so saying there are squids capable of taking out whales isn't any bit of an exaggeration.

How huge do you think Mesonychoteuthis can get?

Rodhouse & Clarke (1985) consider M. hamiltoni to be a major prey item of sperm whales in the Southern Ocean. Beaks comprise 14 % of the numbers found in sperm whale stomachs from the Antarctic and, because of the large size of the species, this represents an estimated 77 % of the biomass consumed.
(Source)

In 1875 the barque Pauline spotted a sperm whale with a snake-like creature wrapped around it's mid-section. The crew reported this sea serpent eventually dragged the whale down to its death. More likely the "snake" was the arm of a large squid in battle with the whale.

Supposedly, the whale was a mere 30 feet (9 m) long; but still...

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I watched this on the news at home and leaped up (as anyone who knows me here would know), much to the suprise of my roommates lol. My jaw dropping, I watched on in hope until they mentioned that they killed it during the struggle.

This marks the second time ever a living Giant Squid has been seen and captured on film, the first being a mirky glimpse of 8 tentacles reaching out of the depths to grab a piece of bait suspended below a camera, before swimming away again. And it bears mention, it was the Japanese team that caught that glimpse too. They're really working miracles in the field.

I don't agree at all with the way this attempt at capturing the creature went though. Seeing and recording it would have been enough, hooking and dragging it through the water was not necessary. Although it would have been incredible to have brought it back to study living. Accidents happen when you get greedy i suppose. Still, this is a great step forward. I can't wait to see the next specimen!

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I agree, it's a great find Burn!

Not so fast buddy! First of all, I believe the Giant Squid didn't cause those scars on the whales as they have suction cups on their tentacles incapable of gouging. It's the Colossal Squid which is larger and has hooks on its tentacles that caused those scars, and for everything we DON'T know about the Giant Squid, we know even less about the Colossal Squid.

Ever see the video of the Giant Octopus that was put in the aquarium with the sharks? They believed the Giant Octopus' strength in camouflage would keep it safe from the sharks, but it turned out that the Giant Octopus started killing off the sharks! Don't be so quick to rule out the possibility of this happening on a larger scale...that the Colossal Squid can get big enough to kill the Sperm Whale. We didn't even know enough about the Giant Octopus to know that it would take out a shark, so saying there are squids capable of taking out whales isn't any bit of an exaggeration.

The shark that was killed was a small shark...about 3 feet long. Try taking on a 70 foot bull Sperm whale, the top-most predator of the ocean.

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How huge do you think Mesonychoteuthis can get?

I think that 30 - 40 feet and 500 lbs is almost a certainty. Larger than that is just speculation on my part with little more than fantasy to base it off of. But if that's what you wanna hear I think that there's a hundred plus foot beast down there with tentacles long enough to wrap up the craziest of sperm whales and squeeze the life out of them!

The shark that was killed was a small shark...about 3 feet long. Try taking on a 70 foot bull Sperm whale, the top-most predator of the ocean.

Indeed the shark was only 3-4 feet long, but it was killed by a common giant octopus. The giant octopus is to that shark what the colossal squid is to your sperm whale.

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I think that 30 - 40 feet and 500 lbs is almost a certainty. Larger than that is just speculation on my part with little more than fantasy to base it off of. But if that's what you wanna hear I think that there's a hundred plus foot beast down there with tentacles long enough to wrap up the craziest of sperm whales and squeeze the life out of them!

The largest ones found have weighed about 550 lbs (for both Architeuthis and Mesonychoteuthis - if we disregard certain older finds, that is, such as the giant squid washed up in Glover's Bay (which in turn is a part of Notre Dame Bay) on New Foundland, November 2nd 1878. They say it had a head and mantle lenght of 20 feet (which is enormous) and tentacles some 35 feet long, adding up to some 55 feet. Supposedly it was some 12-15 feet in girth, and Heuvelmans suggested that it weighed 27 tonnes (60,000 lbs), which is ridiculous. Nonetheless, for a while it was commonly accepted that it weighed over 2 tonnes (4,400+ lbs). Another huge specimen washed up exactly one month later on another bay in the same general area that had a head and mantle lenght of 15 feet (I don't know if more measurements were taken).

Another specimen, washed up in New Zealand, "early in October" 1887, had a body lenght of 7.8 feet and supposedly had a total lenght of 55 ft 2 in. Other sources claim it was 62 feet long. This specimen had a much smaller body though, so I suspect the tentacles were extended to great lenght (tentacle lenght given as an amazing 54 feet!).

There was one person who claimed he had witnessed a squid 175 feet long. But that is ridiculous... if such an animal where to exist, it'd be no mortal squid spawned of this planet.

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Wow! I can't believe they finally got one. Frankly, I'm not suprised they killed it in the process. I doubt those would ever survive in captivity. Some things just don't survive. Look at the great white shark. Many attempts at captivity, all failed.

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the squid aren't hunted by sperm whales...i saw it on the discovery channel. they are both predators, and sometimes they get into disputes...that's all. i saw it on secrets of the deep, and it was a show on sperm whales. :)

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the squid aren't hunted by sperm whales...i saw it on the discovery channel. they are both predators, and sometimes they get into disputes...that's all. i saw it on secrets of the deep, and it was a show on sperm whales. :)

Well we don't know for sure, but that's what I think. I saw a clip (as I spoke of earlier) of a giant octopus killing 4ft long sharks. I could only assume this is a small scale version of the "larger scale" colossal aquid and sperm whale. Probably the larger squids kill the smaller whales and the larger whales kill the smaller squids.

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Not so fast buddy! First of all, I believe the Giant Squid didn't cause those scars on the whales as they have suction cups on their tentacles incapable of gouging. It's the Colossal Squid which is larger and has hooks on its tentacles that caused those scars, and for everything we DON'T know about the Giant Squid, we know even less about the Colossal Squid.

Woah ok now i'm really confused. So you mean that there is a type of squid EVEN BIGGER than that of the giant squid called the collosal squid?? I have never heard of it, yet read any news about it...and i think that you are mistaken as the giant squid is the largest invertebrate on Earth(i read it somewhere on the net). If there was such a thing as a collosal squid which you say is larger than the giant squid, then how come they never mentioned it as being the largest invertebrate? I think you've got your facts mixed up mate...giant squid is the biggest squid out there in the deep sea, and the scars on the whales may have been caused my another creature, not necessarily the giant squid. Unless you refer the giant squid as the collosal squid as well...i.e. the same species, then it makes sense, otherwise i think you are mixed up. Giant squid is the biggest squid in the deep sea. I am pretty darn sure :)

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Not so fast buddy! First of all, I believe the Giant Squid didn't cause those scars on the whales as they have suction cups on their tentacles incapable of gouging. It's the Colossal Squid which is larger and has hooks on its tentacles that caused those scars, and for everything we DON'T know about the Giant Squid, we know even less about the Colossal Squid.

Woah ok now i'm really confused. So you mean that there is a type of squid EVEN BIGGER than that of the giant squid called the collosal squid?? I have never heard of it, yet read any news about it...and i think that you are mistaken as the giant squid is the largest invertebrate on Earth(i read it somewhere on the net). If there was such a thing as a collosal squid which you say is larger than the giant squid, then how come they never mentioned it as being the largest invertebrate? I think you've got your facts mixed up mate...giant squid is the biggest squid out there in the deep sea, and the scars on the whales may have been caused my another creature, not necessarily the giant squid. Unless you refer the giant squid as the collosal squid as well...i.e. the same species, then it makes sense, otherwise i think you are mixed up. Giant squid is the biggest squid in the deep sea. I am pretty darn sure :)

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Woah ok now i'm really confused. So you mean that there is a type of squid EVEN BIGGER than that of the giant squid called the collosal squid?? I have never heard of it, yet read any news about it...and i think that you are mistaken as the giant squid is the largest invertebrate on Earth(i read it somewhere on the net). If there was such a thing as a collosal squid which you say is larger than the giant squid, then how come they never mentioned it as being the largest invertebrate? I think you've got your facts mixed up mate...giant squid is the biggest squid out there in the deep sea, and the scars on the whales may have been caused my another creature, not necessarily the giant squid. Unless you refer the giant squid as the collosal squid as well...i.e. the same species, then it makes sense, otherwise i think you are mixed up. Giant squid is the biggest squid in the deep sea. I am pretty darn sure :)

The Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis Hamiltoni) is somewhat larger than the Giant Squid (various species of the Architeuthis genus). It has a larger body lenght than the Giant squid, and more massive fins. It also has those hooks on its arms and tentacles.

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the squid aren't hunted by sperm whales...i saw it on the discovery channel. they are both predators, and sometimes they get into disputes...that's all. i saw it on secrets of the deep, and it was a show on sperm whales.

Sperm whales dive deep to exclusively feed on giant squid. Squid beaks have also been found in Sperm whale stomachs, but no one knows if these are from giant or colossal squid.

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Sperm whales dive deep to exclusively feed on giant squid. Squid beaks have also been found in Sperm whale stomachs, but no one knows if these are from giant or colossal squid.

Frogfish is right. I'm sure sperm whales eat some other stuff too, but it's mostly squid and octopi. The squid beak thing is right, too. The irritation caused by the beak in the stomach causes a secretion to form around the beak. This buildup is called ambergris. It was once used as an ingredient in perfumes to keep the scent strong. The ambergris, if found (it's not always there) was worth more than the blubber and oil from the whale.

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