(truths being uncovered by The Cephalopod Squad)
An e-zine dedicated to exposing the truth about Giant Squid, Octopi, and other mysterious invertebrates.
April 9, 2003 update!!!
There are so many exciting developments in the squid conspiracy!
"[T]he biomass of all the world's squid is now heavier than that of us humans"!!
GEORGE JACKSON: If places have been overfished or the squid have been removed, squids have often moved into those areas and established themselves very quickly. Worldwide there's probably, if you look at the biomass of squid, there'd be more squid that the biomass of humans on the face of the earth.
NICOLE JOHNSTON: Dr Jackson says declining stocks of squid predators like shark, cod and rays is allowing new quick-breeding squid populations to establish.
GEORGE JACKSON: Right around the world, and there's some fairly heavy fishing going on, a lot of stocks have been depleted, so what's been found is if you remove the predators or competitors, it leaves a vacuum that the squid rapidly fill, because they grow so quickly.
...
NICOLE JOHNSTON: Dr Jackson says in the heavily-overfished Gulf of Thailand, squid have taken over local fish populations. He says if the trend continues the fishing industry will become squid based.
GEORGE JACKSON: I think more people are going to be eating calamari, that's going to happen perhaps. There might not be other things to eat, is what it boils down to. If people are used to eating fish and there's not many fish left, where they once were fishing, they're going to look elsewhere, that's what the world is doing, if sea surfaces or sea temperatures rise.
[thanks to tom p. on
his weblog for the link!]
Deep sea monster squid found
[
from cnn.com health and science] [
another squid article from bbc news]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Reuters) -- A rare and dangerous squid with eyes the size of dinner plates and scores of razor-sharp hooks to snag its prey has been caught by fishermen off Antarctica, New Zealand scientists said on Thursday.
The half-grown female colossal squid is only the second intact example of the monster cephalopod known to have been found, said marine biologist Steve O'Shea of New Zealand's national museum.
"I've seen 105 giant squid, but seeing something like this is pretty sensational," O'Shea told Reuters.
A trawler caught the 150 kg, 330-pound squid in the sub-Antarctic Ross Sea about 3540 kilometers (2,200 miles) south of Wellington.
The squid was eating Patagonian Toothfish, which grow to two meters in length, when it was caught. It was dead when it was hawled into the trawler and the remains are now in the New Zealand national museum.
The body of the colossal squid is much bigger than the giant squid, which can weigh up to 900 kg, 2,000 pounds when fully grown. A giant squid's tentacles can be up to 13 meters long, compared with five meters on the recovered creature.
Comparisons are difficult because of the colossal squid's hostile environment and rarity. Five of the six previous discoveries have only been pieces inside sperm whale stomachs.
More dangerous
American marine biologist Kat Bolstad said the colossal squid was a more dangerous animal than the giant squid, the mythical monster of the deep that attacked Captain Nemo's Nautilus in Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."
"This is a very aggressive animal and moves quickly. If you fell in the water next to it you would be in big trouble," said Bolstad.
The colossal squid finds food by literally glowing in the dark, deep waters to light up prey for its massive eyes -- the biggest of any animal.
But it is the colossal squid's weaponry that marks it out from its giant cousin.
Its eight arms and two tentacles have up to 25 teeth-like hooks -- deeply rooted into muscle and able to rotate 360 degrees -- as well as the usual suckers to ensure fish do not escape.
The hooks not only hold fish for the squid's two parrot-like beaks, but also are used to fend off attacks from hungry sperm whales, O'Shea said.
The species, whose scientific name is mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, was previously thought to have lurked at least 800 meters down in the freezing waters near Antarctica, but the specimen found a fortnight ago was near the surface.
O'Shea said the discovery raised questions about what else was down deep in the ocean.
"We know so little about the marine environment in general. If animals like this are turning up, what's going to be at 3,000-meters (10,000-foot) depth. We don't know," O'Shea said.
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more on the giant squid conspiracy
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