[ThinkInsane]

From Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have taken the first photographs of one of the most mysterious creatures in the deep ocean -- the giant squid.

Until now the only information about the behavior of the creatures which measure up to 18 meters (59 feet) in length has been based on dead or dying squid washed up on shore or captured in commercial fishing nets.

But Tsunemi Kubodera, of the National Science Museum, and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, both in Tokyo have captured the first images of Architeuthis attacking bait 900 meters (yards) below the surface in the cold, dark waters of the North Pacific.

"We show the first wild images of a giant squid in its natural environment," they said in a report on Wednesday in the journal Proceedings B of the Royal Society.

Little is known about the creatures because it has been so difficult to locate and study them alive. Large ships and specialist equipment, which is costly, are needed to study deep sea environments.

The Japanese scientists found the squid by following sperm whales, the most effective hunters of giant squid, as they gathered to feed between September and December in the deep waters off the coast of the Ogasawara Islands in the North Pacific.

They used a remote long-line camera and depth logging system to capture the giant squid in the ocean depths.

"The most dramatic character of giant squids is the pair of extremely long tentacles, distinct from the eight shorter arms. The long tentacles make up to two-thirds of the length of the dead specimens to date," the scientists said in the journal.

They added that the giant squid appear to be a much more active predator than researchers had suspected and tangled their prey in their elongated feeding tentacles.

Sweet!

[tooki]

Neato! Just the other night i watched a show about humboldt squid, they're neato creatures!

tooki

[ironknee]

very coool!

so when does the dicovery channel show this?

[pathogen]

Any higher res pictures yet?

[ThinkInsane]

I hope they have better pics than the half a dozen thumbnails that they show in the Reuters story. I'd love to see that video.

[Rev-O]

Very cool. Pictures are lacking, but the news is very cool!

[Fred_Cokebottle]

How long do these live?

[Weyland-Yutani]

¡Increíble!

Marine biology isn't my field of expertise but still..

cheers

W-Y

[Rev-O]

Google Architeuthis dux and you'll end up with a bazillion hits. They all seem to be pretty dodgy (cryptozoology anyone?) on the quality front, but this one seems to have some fairly good basic info.

[ghporter]

Think, my son, who has intented to become a cryptozoologist, thanks you IMMENSELY!

[Eriamjh]

Originally Posted by tooki

Neato! Just the other night i watched a show about humboldt squid, they're neato creatures!

tooki

Was that the killer Squid show on cable? I saw the one on killer Jellyfish!

[FulcrumPilot]

Funny this:

""The male giant squid has to use a puny 15-gram brain to coordinate 150 kilograms of weight, 10 metres of length and a 1.5-metre-long penis," he says. "He physically plunges this penis into the female's arms, which are rather unfortunately right next to her beak. Because he is coordinating so much with so little, I think occasionally bits get chewed off when they inadvertently get too close to the beak.""

[Wiskedjak]

The downside is that the pics and video were probably taken so deep that there won't be anything available to use for scale.

[nooon]

That might just as well be a tiny squid for all I know..

[Cody Dawg]

That might just as well be a tiny squid for all I know..

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by nooon

That might just as well be a tiny squid for all I know..

Fortunately we don't have to rely on that.

Confirmation of approximate size and positive identification of the giant squid was possible because...

"[...]the club of one of the squid’s long feeding tentacles became caught in the bait equipment. It eventually broke off, and the team retrieved and genetically sequenced the 5.5-metre-long severed section to confirm that the animal was indeed Architeuthis dux. They estimate the squid’s total length was at least eight metres." Link

Very nice discovery.

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by ThinkInsane

From Reuters

Sweet!

I'm sure other sources will have similar footage -sequence of photographic images might be a better description*- as well in the near future but this little glimpse is all I could find so far...

TBS Link (Text encoding: Japanese ISO 2022-JP*)

Real
http://news.tbs.co.jp/ram/news3126582_2.ram
Windows Media
http://news.tbs.co.jp/asx/news3126582_3.asx

*Edits

[Kvasir]

I still think it would also be cool if Dr. O'Shea was able to raise an Architeuthis from larvae. He's the one who Discovery channel featured ("Chasing Giants"), when he first cought and identified Architeuthis larvae in pelagic trawls.

And I used to be a deep-sea marine biologist (hydrothermal vent tubeworms were my gig - 900m is pretty shallow to me , more used to 1500-4000m depths ), so this stuff always grabs my attention.

[JoshuaZ]

Super cool. Go Japan. Now they'll probably try to eat them.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

Super cool. Go Japan. Now they'll probably try to eat them.

It will become the latest dining craze. ***Eat the tentacle before the suckers get to you first!***

[pathogen]

Of course, it's only a matter of weeks before a dangerous Japanese mastermind steals the tentacle bit and regenerates the rest of the squid using too much atomic radiation... and soon Osaka will face SQUIDARKA!

[effgee]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

Super cool. Go Japan. Now they'll probably try to eat them.

Mmmmmmmmh .... calamari.
</homersimpson>

[mdc]

Originally Posted by Kvasir

I still think it would also be cool if Dr. O'Shea was able to raise an Architeuthis from larvae. He's the one who Discovery channel featured ("Chasing Giants"), when he first cought and identified Architeuthis larvae in pelagic trawls.

And I used to be a deep-sea marine biologist (hydrothermal vent tubeworms were my gig - 900m is pretty shallow to me , more used to 1500-4000m depths ), so this stuff always grabs my attention.

i watched that chasing giants show on discovery, it was neat. pretty unfortunate that the larvae died though.

[SirCastor]

This is awesome. I'm excited that we've seen a live one.
I'll get the Nautilius ready for battle with SQUIDARKA.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by Eriamjh

Was that the killer Squid show on cable? I saw the one on killer Jellyfish!

Indeed it was! I saw the jellyfish one, too. I would have watched the killer ants, too, but I had to go to bed!

Who knew that deadly jellyfish the size of a gumdrop existed?

tooki

[ajprice]

So the first time a live giant squid gets filmed by people, its gets trapped and loses half a tentacle??!!?!

Way to go, humans!!

[mdc]

Originally Posted by pathogen

Of course, it's only a matter of weeks before a dangerous Japanese mastermind steals the tentacle bit and regenerates the rest of the squid using too much atomic radiation... and soon Osaka will face SQUIDARKA!

that'll be the day

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by ajprice

So the first time a live giant squid gets filmed by people, its gets trapped and loses half a tentacle??!!?!

Way to go, humans!!

I was thinking the same thing.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by ajprice

So the first time a live giant squid gets filmed by people, its gets trapped and loses half a tentacle??!!?!
Way to go, humans!!

Well, I'm surpirsed they didn't catch the whole thing and make lunch out of it. In that respect, way to go !

-t

[Kvasir]

So these pictures are identified (from the tentacle) as Architeuthis dux, the species most commonly referred to as the "giant squid". But, lurking out there in Antarctic waters, is a species that reportedly gets even bigger (by at least about 15-25%) - Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni - the "colossal squid" (known since 1925, but has a much more restricted apparent range than the giant squid, so hasn't gotten as much attention).

Nice to know it's still not safe to go back in the water - well, at least don't go swimming off the Ross Ice Shelf...

P.S. pics