Gold9472
09-28-2005, 07:49 PM
Face to face at last with Captain Nemo's old foe
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2005/09/28/ecnsquid28.xml&sSheet=/connected/2005/09/28/ixconn.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/09/28/usquid.jpg
(Filed: 28/09/2005)
In pictures: giant squid in its natural habitat
Scientists have taken the first photographs of the giant squid in its natural habitat, providing a remarkable glimpse of one of the most mysterious creatures on the planet.
The leviathan has long been a creature of legend. In 1753 the bishop of Bergen, in Norway, referred to one that was big enough to crush the largest man-of-war.
It has been, and remains, inspirational to script writers and authors, most famously Jules Verne, who described how giant squid attacked Capt Nemo's submarine Nautilus.
The real thing, the world's biggest and most advanced invertebrate, measures up to 60ft long and has two tentacles that can stretch up to two thirds of its length.
Until now, our only glimpse has been when the creatures have been washed up or are hauled to the surface after becoming entangled in fishing gear.
Adults have never been seen in their natural habitat and all the available information on them has been based on dead or dying animals.
A description of how the pictures of the squid were obtained is published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, by Dr Tsunemi Kubodera, of the National Science Museum in Tokyo, and Kyoichi Mori, of the Ogaswara Whale Watching Association.
They used a digital camera and bait dangling at a depth of about 450 fathoms off the Ogasawara Islands in the north Pacific.
The team used sperm whales, which feed on giant squid (Architeuthis), as guides. Each year between September and December the whales feed in deep water off the Ogasawara Islands.
Data collected for the past decade by the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association showed that the whales gathered close to a steep and canyoned continental slope, south-east of Chichijima Island.
The squid hunters dropped combined camera and bait systems on lines in the area where the whales liked to hunt. From the images taken every 30 seconds for up to five hours, they obtained the first glimpse of the extraordinary creature.
A specimen estimated at 25ft long wrapped itself in a ball around the bait. The squid then became snagged on the hooks used to carry the bait and, over the next 80 minutes, it dragged the camera upwards.
After more than four hours, the squid broke away, leaving a piece of tentacle that the scientists were able to identify with DNA tests.
Some have speculated that the creatures drift on currents, with their tentacles dangling like fishing lines. But the image of a sluggish squid is shattered by this paper, which shows that they are highly active.
The authors write: "The tentacles coil into an irregular ball in much the same way that pythons rapidly envelop their prey within coils of their body immediately after striking."
A British squid hunter, Dr Martin Collins, of the British Antarctic Survey, said the Japanese study would end a long debate over whether squid were passive or active hunters.
"Some thought they drifted around and caught whatever went by," he said. "The evidence of this paper is that they are very active. Their tentacles dart out and catch things and the way this one became entangled and dragged the camera away shows that they are quite powerful.
"People have been trying to photograph giant squid for quite a while, for instance by sticking the cameras on the heads of sperm whales. It is fantastic that someone has done it at last."
Until the images published today, the only live examples studied have been just half an inch long, captured by Dr Steve O'Shea, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, in Wellington, New Zealand. He found them at a depth of 20ft about 150 miles east of New Zealand. DNA tests confirmed the larvae to be Architeuthis.
But they were a far cry from the adult monster, which typically weighs a ton and has lidless eyes the size of dinner plates (at 10in, the largest in the animal kingdom).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2005/09/28/ecnsquid28.xml&sSheet=/connected/2005/09/28/ixconn.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/09/28/usquid.jpg
(Filed: 28/09/2005)
In pictures: giant squid in its natural habitat
Scientists have taken the first photographs of the giant squid in its natural habitat, providing a remarkable glimpse of one of the most mysterious creatures on the planet.
The leviathan has long been a creature of legend. In 1753 the bishop of Bergen, in Norway, referred to one that was big enough to crush the largest man-of-war.
It has been, and remains, inspirational to script writers and authors, most famously Jules Verne, who described how giant squid attacked Capt Nemo's submarine Nautilus.
The real thing, the world's biggest and most advanced invertebrate, measures up to 60ft long and has two tentacles that can stretch up to two thirds of its length.
Until now, our only glimpse has been when the creatures have been washed up or are hauled to the surface after becoming entangled in fishing gear.
Adults have never been seen in their natural habitat and all the available information on them has been based on dead or dying animals.
A description of how the pictures of the squid were obtained is published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, by Dr Tsunemi Kubodera, of the National Science Museum in Tokyo, and Kyoichi Mori, of the Ogaswara Whale Watching Association.
They used a digital camera and bait dangling at a depth of about 450 fathoms off the Ogasawara Islands in the north Pacific.
The team used sperm whales, which feed on giant squid (Architeuthis), as guides. Each year between September and December the whales feed in deep water off the Ogasawara Islands.
Data collected for the past decade by the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association showed that the whales gathered close to a steep and canyoned continental slope, south-east of Chichijima Island.
The squid hunters dropped combined camera and bait systems on lines in the area where the whales liked to hunt. From the images taken every 30 seconds for up to five hours, they obtained the first glimpse of the extraordinary creature.
A specimen estimated at 25ft long wrapped itself in a ball around the bait. The squid then became snagged on the hooks used to carry the bait and, over the next 80 minutes, it dragged the camera upwards.
After more than four hours, the squid broke away, leaving a piece of tentacle that the scientists were able to identify with DNA tests.
Some have speculated that the creatures drift on currents, with their tentacles dangling like fishing lines. But the image of a sluggish squid is shattered by this paper, which shows that they are highly active.
The authors write: "The tentacles coil into an irregular ball in much the same way that pythons rapidly envelop their prey within coils of their body immediately after striking."
A British squid hunter, Dr Martin Collins, of the British Antarctic Survey, said the Japanese study would end a long debate over whether squid were passive or active hunters.
"Some thought they drifted around and caught whatever went by," he said. "The evidence of this paper is that they are very active. Their tentacles dart out and catch things and the way this one became entangled and dragged the camera away shows that they are quite powerful.
"People have been trying to photograph giant squid for quite a while, for instance by sticking the cameras on the heads of sperm whales. It is fantastic that someone has done it at last."
Until the images published today, the only live examples studied have been just half an inch long, captured by Dr Steve O'Shea, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, in Wellington, New Zealand. He found them at a depth of 20ft about 150 miles east of New Zealand. DNA tests confirmed the larvae to be Architeuthis.
But they were a far cry from the adult monster, which typically weighs a ton and has lidless eyes the size of dinner plates (at 10in, the largest in the animal kingdom).