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Giant Squid (Architeuthis)

Not only that ryn, but as most giant squid are known from corpses and live ones have only been seen fleetingly we don't know whether or not they do surface from time to time.We don't know the life cycle of these enigmatic creatures and extrapolating behaviour from similar species is dangerous.

Its not that long ago that people thought that Swallows hibernated in ponds, also people thought that Barnacle Geese came from the Goose Barnacle.
 
I tried to get some more info on this from the official race website, but it's not very user friendly, and bits of it don't seem to work properly.

However, it's clear this is not so much a race as a world record attempt, so as I said before there's no way the crew would stop for an hour if they didn't have to. Sailing boats (no engine noise) frequently hit whales, so why not squid?

I have read somewhere that squid generally only come to the surface when they're dying.
 
Assuming the story is true, it really gives credence to the Kraken legend. It would only take one instance of a huge-ass squid latching onto a boat to keep people talking for generations!
 
A Jules Verne Trophy! How appropriate! ( ---> 20000 leagues under the sea)
 
rynner said:
I have read somewhere that squid generally only come to the surface when they're dying.
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this soiunds like a latch-on from the kraken legend. I don't know if people see enough if the squid to comfim this.
 
sveand said:
A Jules Verne Trophy! How appropriate! ( ---> 20000 leagues under the sea)
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True! The Nautilus was attacked by a giant squid in that book! I must have read it many times in my youth.
 
Another interesting fact that magnifies the proportions of the ones found on beaches. Water-born invertibrates, especially squid are almost entirely comprised of Water. 90% or thereabouts.

If one is found dead on the beach....it will have shrunk considerably. CONSIDERABLE SHRINKAGE!!!:D

The 60 foot squid may be more than 100 feet in length when it was alive.

Are the dead ones fully grown anyway?
 
sveand said:
A Jules Verne Trophy! How appropriate! ( ---> 20000 leagues under the sea)
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ho hum!
Wanting to assume that this is true, I can't help thinking that this would be a mighty fine story to invent for a laugh...
Having said that, the only squid I have ever encountered have been in restaurants (ick), and I'm happy for it to stay that way!!
 
St.Clair said:
Water-born invertibrates, especially squid are almost entirely comprised of Water. 90% or thereabouts.
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I think that figure applies to humans too! Our blood is apparently very similar in make-up to sea water, a reminder of our very distant evolutionary past.

(No doubt some clever clogs will shortly quote us chapter and verse - I'm too busy to look it up right now.)
 
Look at what fungi in general can do to tarmac.
 
Re: Giant Squid grabs race yacht

rynner said:
So here we have an 'expert' who wasn't there dissing the word of those who were.
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The annoying thing, is here is a guy who has probably never seen a live giant squid enough to know its living habits...

But there is a way confirmation could be gained: race yachts like these carry satnav gear which reports their positions to race control. If the reports do show that the boat was near stationary for an hour at the time the crew said, this would be strong evidence in their favour. (No race crew would willingly stop racing just to perpetrate a hoax.) Let's hope someone on board took pics or video.
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I wonder if anyone will check it though, or since the "expert" has weighed in the story will be forgotten?
 
You'd have thought if they'd made it up for a joke they would have done better than a 26ft specimen. Whilst 26ft isn't exactly a tiddler, it's hardly extraordinary.
 
Squid

I saw that photo of the squid in the Mail - it was quite a while ago now but I recall it clearly. The background was pitch black so there was nothing to judge the size of the thing from, it looked like a standard small squid of some kind with short tentacles etc. with a minnow or something photoshopped on the front. Definately not a shark of any great size.

Anyway, I thought a squid's er...what's the word... throat... type thing, went through it's brain, so it wouldn't be able to swallow anything of any real size (like a shark). Unless it was gonna bite the shark up real small. In which case it'd probably get eaten by the shark in the process. Well, that's my very scientific theory for you!
 
Humans

Don't you just love how Discovery put this in their article...
"O'Shea said having captive giant squid would allow researchers to expand their severely limited understanding of the creatures, and hopefully aid in protecting them."

....like they need our help of something... what egos.
 
Not So far anyway.
Does anyone out there recall in the sixties a story of a Sperm Whale caught which had Sucker scars 18 inches in diameter on it, which they said mean't it had fought a squid over 200 feet in lenth! Or I suppose an unknown Squid which has huge suckers!
If anyone can point me to anymore info on this I would be most interested.
 
Sick squid

The Spanish Navy seem to have embarked on a typically military method of investigating Giant Squid, kill them and then ask questions.

At:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1045273,00.html

Giant squid found dead in Spain

Reuters, Madrid
Friday September 19, 2003
The Guardian

Shockwaves from scientific tests carried out by the Spanish navy have killed four giant squid - one the length of a bus - off the Spanish coast in recent days, the head of a marine protection agency claimed yesterday.
Luis Laria, president of marine protection agency, said the navy ship Hesperides was working in the area and the shockwaves from equipment used to study the ocean floor had killed the squid.

The giant squid, mythologised as the monster that attacked Captain Nemo's Nautilus in the Jules Verne adventure 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is the world's largest invertebrate and lives as deep as 2,000 metres (6,560ft).

But Josep Gallard, a leading scientist on the ship, denied that its techniques were harmful.

"This hypothesis is far from being proven," he said. "We use this technique because of its minimal environmental impact ... the changes in pressure are very slight."

In the past few days three giant squid, creatures which are still largely a mystery to scientists, have washed up on Spain's northern coast and a fourth was floating offshore yesterda
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Killer Squid Attack

I am getting quite concerned about squids - they really seem to be a recurring theme at the moment - tentacle porn here, weird dreams about squid there, this thread, etc. (Cthulhu is toying with my mind).

To add to this giant squid thread there was an interesting documentary on the UK's Channel 5 about the hunt for 6 foot squid in the Gulf Of California - anyone see it?

It was interesting to hear about how they will attack people and I was scoffing at this and the title but once they got down where the squids were they came plunging out of the dark and attacked the cameramen so..........

Not much online about it except:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/calendar.php?mode=display&day=22&month=9&year=2003

Emps
 
Re: Killer Squid Attack

Emperor said:
I am getting quite concerned about squids - they really seem to be a recurring theme at the moment - tentacle porn here, weird dreams about squid there, this thread, etc. (Cthulhu is toying with my mind)......
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And John Wyndham's 'The Kraken Wakes' tentacled beasties from the deep sink ships and start to melt the polar ice-caps.
 
Hmmmmmmm this thread is hellbent on going off topic :p

Anyway...........

Timble:

And John Wyndham's 'The Kraken Wakes' tentacled beasties from the deep sink ships and start to melt the polar ice-caps.
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Ah yes a great book - I looked around for an electronic copy (as I can't find any of my Wyndham books - I should stop boasting of my system until I can put my hand on Day of the Triffids again) but couldn't find one (as it was published in 1953 it has reached its 50 year copyright limit).

It can be quite a theme:

Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the lumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
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source:

The Kraken by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

see also:

The Sea Raiders by H.G. Wells

and of course:

The Call of Cthulhu (pdf)

Emps
 
 
xeno:

Does anyone out there recall in the sixties a story of a Sperm Whale caught which had Sucker scars 18 inches in diameter on it, which they said mean't it had fought a squid over 200 feet in lenth! Or I suppose an unknown Squid which has huge suckers!
If anyone can point me to anymore info on this I would be most interested.
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There is a picture of something which may be the sucker marked skin here but there is no scale (and it might be a 'reconstruction' like the other pictures on the page):

http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/squid.htm

[edit: Ahhhhhhhh now this is a better picture:

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/IMAGES/squid_whaleskin.gif

no scale but it gives enough information for someone to track down the original plate and story - the book appears to be:

John Murray, Johan Hjort, (1912) The Depths of the Ocean. Macmillan, London:

http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/ocean-books/ocean-books-mn.html#murray-hjort:1912

Some sites do ask if the marks could have been made on the whale when it was younger and strecthed as it grew:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/ocean/monsters/giants.htm

although I would have thought it would be possible to tell age of scars, etc.]

Another reconstruction here:

http://ncca.bournemouth.ac.uk/main/staff/vassili/giant_squid.html

a nice 1935 pic:

http://alpha.fdu.edu/~boyer/Bostelmann_credit.html

A quick report:

In October 1966 two lighthouse keepers at Danger Point, South Africa watched a giant squid drown a baby southern right whale. In 1965 a Soviet whaler witnessed a fight between a 40 ton sperm whale and a giant squid. Neither animal survived this encounter.
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http://www.pibburns.com/cryptost/kraken.htm

and this appears to be footage of an attack on a shark (unfortunately the page breaks):

http://cryptozoo.monstrous.com/whale_vs_giant_squid.htm
 
Avast Emperor,

If you do sleep, there's a good chance you'll dream of the eye.

Considering the crowd present when the living Architeuthis entered the rockpool, it's likely that there was more than one camera recording the event. We don't yet have a description of the squid's behavior, before and after it was captured. The questions pile up. Was it moribund, or energetic? Had it recently mated? Was the ejection of water from the siphon weak, or forceful? Did it defend itself?

As Steve O'Shea said, the full story has not yet been told.

Eli
 
Eli:

Avast Emperor,

If you do sleep, there's a good chance you'll dream of the eye.
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Yar I have dreamt of such beasts of the deep before and they hold no fear for me!!

--------------
Anyway previous dirty great big cephalopd discussion:

Collosal squid:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8667

Giant squid attacks Frenchman:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7491

Giant squid washes up in Portugal:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5210

Is the Lovecraftian mythos real?:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5308

Giant squid washes up on Australian beach:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4502

Bloop:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4021

Big New Zealand octopus:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2852

Giant squid eggs:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2754

Emps
 
Squid vs whale

The two cases of giant squids fighting with whales are interesting is there more information in the cryptozoological books?

I did a bit of digging:

South African Lighthouse

more detail:

We know the giant squid tangles with whales from eye-witness accounts. In October 1966, two lighthouse keepers at Danger Point, South Africa, observed a baby southern right whale under attack from a giant squid. For an hour and a half the monster clung to the whale trying to drown it as the whale's mother watched helplessly. "The little whale could stay down for 10 to 12 minutes, then come up. It would just have enough time to spout - only two or three seconds - and then down again." The squid finally won and the baby whale was never seen again.
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http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/squid.htm

In 1966 two lighthouse keepers at Danger Point near Pearly Beach claimed to have seen a giant squid choking a baby whale while its helpless mother looked on.

No footage exists of the tangle, but it is remembered by the local museum's curator, Jan Fourie.
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http://www.suntimes.co.za/2003/08/24/news/cape/nct02.asp

that whole report is interesting in regard to this thread's general thrust - more info here:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1081

Soviet whaler

In 1965, a Soviet whaler watched a battle between a squid and a 40 ton sperm whale. In this case neither were victorious. The strangled whale was found floating in the sea with the squid's tentacles wrapped around the whale's throat. The squid's severed head was found in the whale's stomach.
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http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/squid.htm

In 1965, the crew of a Soviet whaler claimed to have witnessed a 40-ton sperm whale embattled with a giant squid. Although the squid didn’t exactly win, neither did the whale. The whale was found floating, dead and strangled, the tentacles of the giant squid still wrapped around its body. The head of the squid was found in the whale’s stomach
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http://www.state.ma.us/czm/coastlines03/c34.htm

and on and on - virtually ever online source repeats this nearly word for word (or trims it down a little) - no names or further information is ever given.

-----------------------
So does anyone have any better info on that?

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Incidental stuff I found:

Giant Squid timeline:
http://207.150.221.97/dekkerdr/squid/hist.asp

Innteresting piece with further sources of info:
http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/mostlyharmless/giantsquid.html

Book:
Ellis, R. (1998). The Search for the Giant Squid. The Lyons Press, NY. 322 pp.
 
You don't think squiddly-diddly's eye has been retouched in the photo's, do you? it just seems a bit too good to be true, if you know what I mean.
 
molga parrot said:
You don't think squiddly-diddly's eye has been retouched in the photo's, do you? it just seems a bit too good to be true, if you know what I mean.
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Hello Parrot,

No, I don't know what you mean. If you're put off by the rather smallish appearance of the Architeuthis' eye, it's easily explained: the muscular ring the orbit sits within has contracted, probably in response to the flash photography. It isn't blinking per se, but it is squinting. As for the veracity of the photos, Kubodera Tsunemi, the teuthologist who took charge of the specimen, has authored (or co-authored) too many important contributions to cephalopod studies to piss it away on a fraud. It's the real deal. Enjoy it, for heaven's sake!

Eli
 
The Unexplained Phenomena Rough Guide points me to biologist Gary Mangiacopra's work.

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cryptozoo/personalia/mangiacopra.htm

http://www.anomalist.com/reports/squid.html

A tad disappointing online selection - he also investigates Globsters and other sea and lake monsters and there is more stuff on that.

-------
Related articles that this led to (probably more interesting than the above ;) ):

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cryptozoo/floride/intro.htm

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cryptozoo/floride/1897a.htm

Giant Squid links:
http://www.mysteries-megasite.com/main/bigsearch/squid.html

Cephalopod news:
http://zapatopi.net/cephnews.html

Emps
 
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