This is a question that I believe can be answered if we were able to make a team of deep sea camera builders to help us out. I was wondering with all this money people are using up for the war, we should have enough money to build a camera that can be able to go down at depths where colossal squids and other huge cephalopods may be. With use of satelites, a mixture of night vision view, and an echo sensor, I think we can build a cordless water proof camera that can go to the depths so deep touching the New Zealand's deepest ocean bed, while scientist up here can view from a computer screen an entire mesh of the ocean bed including signs of life forms. :twisted: I think that would be an interesting goal to accomplish that will really help us learn more about these fascinating cephalopods. Who knows, it may be our only hope in finding more about the architeuthis dux and it's habitat and survival methods.

Chicago octo :x

the only problem with underwater cameras is that if you dont have them in the right place at the right time, you have nothing.....no photographic idea could compare to SOSUS, or anything similar.....

I wonder...

If the primary prey-acquisition "system" of Architeuthis and Mesonychoteuthis is visual, and if one (or both) of these animals shadows schooling fish, perhaps the camera array should be tethered to either a) the same trawling nets which occasionally snare these teuthids, or b) a specialized pseudomorph which mimics the appearance of a school of fish, e.g. a closed net covered with light-reflecting lures, with cameras located on the towing line, or within the pseudomorph itself. Bio-luminescent organisms stirred up by the turbulence surrounding and trailing the net could provide availablle light for the cameras and serve as a further attractant to big teuthids.

Rather than being blind-sided by trawl-nets, I wonder if the giants (Archie & Mason) go after them, in an attempt to get at the mass of milling fish visible within the mesh. The impulse to feed on an available, non-maneuvering "school" might overcome the squid's native caution.

:roll:

Clem

the only problem with underwater cameras is that if you dont have them in the right place at the right time, you have nothing.....no photographic idea could compare to SOSUS, or anything similar.....

Well, if we have cameras that work with satelites, we can view the maximum distance and depth possible, and we can also sense living creatures and huge cephalopods with movement sensors of far distance.

chicago octo

Interesting thread. The known diet of Architeuthis is, however, non-bioluminescent.

If you had an array of these cameras (rather than one fixed camera) set at the right (most appropriate) time, depth and location (to intercept a migrating squid population as they move in to breed), with cameras triggered by some motion sensor/acoustic signal (side scan), or possibly satelite (not sure how this would work yet, unless there's a link between the subsurface camera via cable to a receiver on the surface - and I don't know how deep the satelites can sense through the ocean surface .... I thought a few mm only - though I could be horribly wrong) you could be in luck.

Cheers
O

Hello Steve,

Bioluminescing organisms would - at least in my notional plan - serve only to get the squid's attention, "sweetening the pot."

Is it possible that A. dux inadvertently ingests bio-luminescent organisms, by eating animals that do? The extension of A. dux's chromatophores up into the mantle cavity and viscera is curious. Could these serve to mask and dim the glow of luminescing organisms as they pass through the alimentary tract? The proportionally small size of A. dux's ink-sac makes me wonder if it might not use a cloud of agitated, luminescing organisms, expelled through the mouth, a kind of inking-in-negative, appropriate for near-lightless conditions.

Clem

[quote="Clem"]Hello Steve,

Bioluminescing organisms would - at least in my notional plan - serve only to get the squid's attention, "sweetening the pot."

Is it possible that A. dux inadvertently ingests bio-luminescent organisms, by eating animals that do? The extension of A. dux's chromatophores up into the mantle cavity and viscera is curious. Could these serve to mask and dim the glow of luminescing organisms as they pass through the alimentary tract? The proportionally small size of A. dux's ink-sac makes me wonder if it might not use a cloud of agitated, luminescing organisms, expelled through the mouth, a kind of inking-in-negative, appropriate for near-lightless conditions.

Hello Steve,

Bioluminescing organisms would - at least in my notional plan - serve only to get the squid's attention, "sweetening the pot."

Is it possible that A. dux inadvertently ingests bio-luminescent organisms, by eating animals that do? The extension of A. dux's chromatophores up into the mantle cavity and viscera is curious. Could these serve to mask and dim the glow of luminescing organisms as they pass through the alimentary tract? The proportionally small size of A. dux's ink-sac makes me wonder if it might not use a cloud of agitated, luminescing organisms, expelled through the mouth, a kind of inking-in-negative, appropriate for near-lightless conditions.

Clem

Ok, I think we have a better chance of catching a colossal squid more than a A. dux, because like I read from Steve, these squid will even go after a human. So instead of using cheesy bioluminesing organisms, why can't they just send a big tuna, or any thing close to a human down that deep??? And for sure a colossal squid will come after it, and BOOM!! They release the net, and it captures the squid. But, all I really want is for someone to just learn about them more, not to actually catch them and bring it up. I really wish in a couple years someone would invent what I have in mind, without harming any squid down there, but to just view them with a sub-camera that is unoticable to them.

chicago octo

the idea of using satellites is far beyond the horizon unless someone sinks a tag into a squid and lets it go.....as for the sight of a orbiting camera picking out a submerged squid, nary a chance within even distant dreams... if we could, we wouldnt need sonar, we could just use satellites....think about the depths involved....these critters are running around at the crush depths of our older subs, and even if you build a casing that can hold ~ 1/4 mi down, what is the range going to be? 5ft at best? as for passive sonar, i dont know how effective that would be with a creature that doesnt sing like a whale or click like a dolphin....plus i imagine that the jet propulsion of cephs doesnt make a whole lot of noise, especially more than a few feet away.... when it comes to active sonar, much like im guessing that the whales use, i dont think that a squid would stick around if it can detect the source (whether it can i believe has been raised on another thread [try searching for seal bombs or something like that] )... and even if they cant, id have to guess that what we have now isnt nearly sensitive enough to be effective over long distances (and keep in mind that the good stuff has a tendency to kill off whales/dolphins) i think the smartest choice would be to try cameras on nets or camera casings that look like schools of the preferred prey (whatever intended fish those who find the archis are after....)

of course those are just my guesses......

Ok, I think we have a better chance of catching a colossal squid than a A. dux, because like I read from Steve, these squid will even go after a human. So instead of using cheesy bioluminesing organisms, why can't they just send a big tuna, or any thing close to a human down that deep??? And for sure a colossal squid will come after it, and BOOM!! They release the net, and it captures the squid. But, all I really want is for someone to just learn about them more, not to actually catch them and bring it up.

Since the colossal squid apparently forages anywhere between 2200m and the surface, it's quite possible we may be able to film it in the upper layers of the water column. As you say, we would much prefer to film it live than capture it. As far as bait goes, it should be attracted to chopped or whole fish, but using something humanesque would be unlikely to trigger any prey-recognition responses as these squid are highly unlikely to have even encountered humans before, let alone recognized them as edible.

:madsci: Interesting topic

OK so remote cameras have problems. So now it's clear what's needed is a deep-sea lab, manned by international scientists and visited every month or so by a deep-sea shuttle carrying supplies and power cells, oxygen maybe!! And then you have towers built up varying heights into the water column with cameras which can be controlled and montiored by the said scientists. A large array of distant cameras could be set up, also controlled from the lab, and zen vee play zee vaiting game no?

You could have lures designed to appeal to Mesonychotheuthis, or any deep sea species you wanted to study, but lets be honest here we want big old squid on camera, preferably grappling something... I see a pet suitable for a James Bond villain!

:madsci:

with 40 billions dollars or so (the cost of the war) you could sod a net; make an enormous four mile long submarine to "eat" the squid, ro ten, and just film them form within.

IN fact, with fourty billion dollars you could pretty much sink an enormous net to the bottom of the sea, and simply close the bottom, and pull it out; everything within would be caight.

40 billion dollars is a lot of money....

*sighs*

first, lets please try to keep politics out of the posts...there may be a few rich eccentrics out there, but i have doubts about efforts to scrape together money for schemes along the lines that have been kicked around in here...especially for just a squid...(keep in mind not everyone is as enamored with them as we are) as for the net, im sure that would that would win over throngs of enviromentalists...

kiboko, i was only replying the the original poster (saying about the cost of the war) and so it was not meant as a political statement.... i was letting my mind wander, as usual, and as such it wasnt exactly the most serious of answers :)

oh, and they arent just squid, they are GIGANTIC squid :D

no worries...just a general request...not aimed at anyone in particular.... as for squid, giant or otherwise, you gotta keep in mind that some people, probably including some of those holding the purse strings have one of two reactions to squid (or cephs in general) 1) ewwww... which can be overcome when a little learning or 2) so what? which is usually VERY hard to get a person to change their position....

"so what?" would change very quickly, if i ever let slip my plans for laser grafted collosal squid tentacles... o wait....

are they ill-tempered?

:x

they are immensly ill tempered, and have been known to attack anything, including but not limited to blue whales.

its an ego thing.

they are immensly ill tempered, and have been known to attack anything, including but not limited to blue whales.

... They who? Colossal squid? We suggest they may defend themselves marginally against sperm whales, their natural predator, but are highly unlikely to initiate aggressive encounters with either toothed or baleen whales.

I hope everyone is a happy little camper on this thread :alarm:

I don't think we'll be waiting long before someone embarks on a search for this 'colossal squid', so keep up the posts and let the imagination go wild.

They could be watching you on the set of Lord of the Rings 12 (when they run out of hobbit stories and need something new).
Cheers
O

hehe tintenfish, i was of course refering to my planned rabid laser gun grafted collosal squid :)

:roll: didnt you know?

OK, just checking :roll:

:-) of course a collosal squid on its own would have to be ferocious; fighting sperm whales all day, and, lets face it, usually losing, would turn any creature ferocious... if it survived that is :)