Scientists photograph giant squid

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/as....ap/index.html

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japanese scientists have photographed for the first time in the wild a live giant squid, one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep sea.

The team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, tracked the 8-meter (25-foot) long Architeuthis as it attacked prey at 900 meters deep off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands.

"We believe this is the first time a grown giant squid has been captured on camera in its natural habitat," said Kyoichi Mori, a marine researcher who co-authored a piece on the finding in the Royal Society Journal, a leading British biological publication.

The camera was operated by remote control during research at the end of October 2004, Mori told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Mori said the squid, which was purplish red like smaller squid, attacked its quarry aggressively, calling into question the image of the animal as lethargic and slow moving.

"Contrary to belief that the giant squid is relatively inactive, the squid we captured on film actively used its enormous tentacles to go after prey," Mori said.

"It went after some bait that we had on the end of the camera and became stuck, and left behind a tentacle six meters long, " Mori said.

Kubodera, also reached by the AP, said researchers ran DNA tests on the tentacle and found it matched those of other giant squids found around Japan.

`'But other sightings were of smaller, or very injured squids washed toward the shore -- or of parts of a giant squid," Kubodera said. "This is the first time a full-grown, healthy squid has been sighted in its natural environment in deep water."

Giant squids have long attracted human fascination and were written about and mythologized by the ancient Greeks.

Scientific interest in the animals has surged in recent years as more specimens have been caught in commercial fishing nets.

Wow, the thing is huge. If you look at the link, there is picture of it.

Thats pretty cool. Though the pictures are a bit small, I would assume that it is quite massive.

WOW! This is huge! I mean, those thing's haven't been seen alive since ancient times! The only times that anyone's ever seen those before this is when they're dead!

And it attacks agressivley? That matches the ancient descriptions of it being a fearsome beast.

WOW!! Thats awsome dawg...The pics are quite small though I wanted to make them bigger but couldnt...

Kewl! It's finally happened! I can say to my kids, "I was alive when the giant squid! I saw it on the ZU fourms!"

if only the pictures were bigger... anyways, thats awesome.

Originally Posted by Blue Knight

WOW! This is huge! I mean, those thing's haven't been seen alive since ancient times! The only times that anyone's ever seen those before this is when they're dead!

And it attacks agressivley? That matches the ancient descriptions of it being a fearsome beast.

People have seen them alive in the past century.

It's times like this I'm glad I live in a landlocked state.
*Gets severe case of the jibblies*
Quite an accomplishment, indeed; I've now seen a live giant squid for myself (a photograph's good enough for me, I have no desire to get any closer to the real deal).

Well it's about time we got a photo of one, scientists have been going after the giant squid for decades.

Originally Posted by milk

People have seen them alive in the past century.

Yeah, the only amazing thing about this is they have photos of it.

And um...great? I mean I guess I'm glad we're finally learning more about the sea, but it doesn't seem that big a deal. I mean it's one picture, and it ain't that great a picture.

Originally Posted by Raunmy Boy

Yeah, the only amazing thing about this is they have photos of it.

And um...great? I mean I guess I'm glad we're finally learning more about the sea, but it doesn't seem that big a deal. I mean it's one picture, and it ain't that great a picture.

It's only a tiny picture because the webmasters were trying to squeeze it into an already image cluttered space. I think it's amazing that we finally have real pictures of the giant squid. I've been curious as to whether or not many of these things are alive today or are just dying away to nothingness. I'd like to know if there are many Tasmanian Tigers left as they're a really facinating creature too. Very unique looking that is. A lot of people have "seen" them, but there's no proof that they still exist as the last one theoretically died in captivity about 50 years ago. So this photograph of the giant squid is really remarkable for me as I like to learn about strange things like this.

Hmm I dont think this is new news because They've caught a giant squid before and they were cutting it up all over the place, I saw it on the news once. But it could've been a giant octapuss, but still YAY giant squid...

Sweet. Now the Discovery channel can show something other than tentacles on the beach and blocky animations for its giant squid exclusives.

For all you people who don't like reading....(and are moaning about the picture quality) there is a CNN report right next to the article.
Here: http://edition.cnn.com/video/player/...ant.squid.affl

Now if only we could get some pics of Nessie....and bigfoot.....and elvis....and the rest.

Heh. Really neat.

I just saw it today.

They found a couple of dead ones a few years back measurin 6 metres never one this bif been seen before not actuallly the big ones spoke of by legends but a start.

Roll on Nessie

As someone whose very interested in Zoology, I'm amazed by this discovery. I truly think its awesome that someone finally got video, and photo evidence of these beasts. 26 feet long? That's huge

And you jabronies called me crazy for believing that Kaiju existed. Bastards

This is awesome. Those who don't appreciate it need to realize the wonders of giant-squiddom.

They've been trying to photograph this creature forever. This is an amazing discovery. I've been waiting for them to finally find the squid :p It was hilarious on the CBS evening news. Bob Schiefer (sp?) started talking about how no one would want to know about giant squids, then started laughing to himself because he was reporting about a squid story. Bob does not understand the signifigance.