[Featured]: Architeuthis (Giant Squid) Sightings

[myopsida]

Steve O wrote:

how often I end up being surprised

This doesn't even need a comment . . . . . .

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Why M, how positively wicked of you - and to think I'd saved you a few flounder .....

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Ku is ... really busy; I'll drop him a note (he actually showed me those rock-pool Architeuthis images last year) ...

Just heard back from Ku (indeed, up to all sorts of interesting things). He confirms that these images are of Architeuthis, and that they are no hoax. He also relayed a little more exciting news (biting tongue, biting tongue) ..... news that surprised me a little (pieces of the puzzle coming together; no, GS hasn't been filmed, but startling revelations as to its biology are just as, if not more interesting than a bit of film).

Tiz only a matter of time.

 

[um...]

Great. Now I'm not going to be able to sleep again.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

.... the new news is pretty sensational, but no thumb screw will extract the info from my tightly bound, stitched and glued lips .....

I also wonder whether Archi is truly ammoniacal throughout its life cycle, or whether this is some development associated with reproductive maturity, or a drop through the water column when a certain size has been reached. This has nothing to do with the recent news .... but a related tangent ....

I would now most definitely think twice about 'swimming/messing with Archi ....' Lock up your children and check your paddle pools before entering!

As an aside, spend a couple of days away from this site and all sorts of pics go online; new Archi's, Meso, Histioteuthis, and this one, Onychoteuthis!

These are all rather cool!

 

[Clem]

I would now most definitely think twice about 'swimming/messing with Archi ....' Lock up your children and check your paddle pools before entering!

Steve,

What happened? Did DNA typing of an Archi's stomach contents reveal a diet of largish sharks?

Thumb screws? Please, we are civilized here at TONMO.com. The fire-ants will be arriving shortly.

Clem

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Also:

PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT:

I am not sure what form of squid is visible here drifting in the water but I think this will be of extreme interest:
http://homepage1.nifty.com/ozok/ika-story2.htm

Righteo ... here's an update.

Yes, the later pics are of Architeuthis, chasing jig-caught Thysanoteuthis!! Apparently this has happened a number of times. There's a pic of Megalocranchia in there too (the large squid partially in frame).

I find it difficult to believe, but themz the facts. Very interesting to note the pronounced counter-pigmentation in the Archi body - dark on top, light/white below; it is obviously an animal of the water column.

 

[Colin]

which part do you mean is difficult to belive? The fact that it is supposed to be archi chasing dinner?

 

[Clem]

Yes, the later pics are of Architeuthis, chasing jig-caught Thysanoteuthis!! Apparently this has happened a number of times...I find it difficult to believe, but themz the facts.

Steve,

That's big news. Without compromising intelligence sources and methods, can you tell us anything more about the circumstances? If not, and it's part of something in the works, we'll certainly understand.

Holy Crap. Now I owe Phil a drink.

 

[Phil]

Yeah..Steve,

To identify the squid on the line as Thysanoteuthis you (and/or Ku) must have uncovered some background to the pictures...from just the picture alone I would have thought the bait squid on the line was pretty unidentifiable. Where and when were these taken? Are any more shots available?

Come to think of it, now that these 'live' pictures have been unearthed, are there any more of Clems' original captured GS that can be posted? Seems the cat is out of the bag now, are there any more out there that we could be allowed to see?

Phil

 

[krin]

Poor squid

Seeing that living eye is incredible!

I feel so sorry for him/her/it. I'm just a big softie I suppose.

Amazing photos though.

KRin.

 

[Clem]

To identify the squid on the line as Thysanoteuthis you (and/or Ku) must have uncovered some background to the pictures...from just the picture alone I would have thought the bait squid on the line was pretty unidentifiable.

Here's the Architeuthis Phil found. (Click Here)

Phil,

The Diamondback squid, Thysanoteuthis is fished commercially off Japan proper and Okinawa. The page you found is maintained by someone on Okinawa (I ran the home-page through Babelfish). It's probably a safe guess that your Archi was observed there, and puts in regular appearances with the local squid-jiggers. If so, I move to establish a fund to provide all squid-fishermen in the area with disposable digital cameras and TONMO's address.

Thysanoteuthis apparently dwells mid-water during the day and heads for the surface at night. With a very thick mantle, muscular fins and comapct head and armature, it must be quite speedy. If Architeuthis is poaching them off lines, that's surprising in its own right, especially given the high-intensity lights that the squid-boats employ; I'd been under the assumption that Archi eschewed such conditions. If the Giant were pursuing healthy, free Diamondbacks, then I'd be even more surprised: such pursuit would require more energy and speed then the GS has been assumed to produce.

On the cryptic side of things, proof of healthy Archis pursuing prey at the ocean's surface would powerfully re-inforce the Giant Squid-as-Sea Monster theory.

What has happened to our passive drifter?



Clem

 

[Steve O'Shea]

What has happened to our passive drifter?



Clem

Ja ... hence lock your children up and check the paddle pool!

Perhaps it isn't ammoniacal throughout its entire lifespan, but only when mature. The problem is that these intermediate-sized animals aren't really known, so nobody has tested for ammonium ion levels in them (wheras I've done the ammonium/sodium ion ratios on mature individuals).

Nothing surprises me any more - nothing!!!!

 

[Steve O'Shea]

which part do you mean is difficult to belive? The fact that it is supposed to be archi chasing dinner?

More that the brute was seen at the surface. It doesn't look like a particularly large one, but all the same it shouldn't be anywhere near the surface given the average depth of capture (at least in NZ waters, n = ~ 75 well-localised specimens) is 498m, with the most shallow being taken at 275m.

.... but then, quite recently, we had the near-fully mature Architeuthis beaks taken from the stomach of a blue shark in northeastern NZ waters - a shark that's not supposed to feed deeper than 150m.

It certainly has me scratching my head.

.... someone else asked 'how we knew it was Thysanoteuthis', based on the fragmentary remains on the end of the hook. They were jigging for Thysanoteuthis at the time, so I guess they assumed that was what it was. Thysanoteuthis does have a very distinctive mantle- and funnel-locking apparatus, that could be discerned from the tattered mantle remains, but I don't know whether they checked (its beaks are also quite [most] similar to those of Architeuthis).

The next question I have is would Architeuthis take a jig? It's worth a shot in known Archi territory. We're scheming away on another expedition somewhere quite new, somewhere where blue sharks have been found with tell-tale beaks in their stomachs, but this is very light pencil at this point in time.

 

[Clem]

Thysanoteuthis does have a very distinctive mantle- and funnel-locking apparatus, that could be discerned from the tattered mantle remains, but I don't know whether they checked (its beaks are also quite [most] similar to those of Architeuthis).

TOL has a page on Thysanoteuthis, with close-ups of the funnel-locking and mantle-locking structures. Click here to see the TOL entry, and compare their photo of the nucchal apparatus to an enlargement of the Archi-chomped Diamondback, below.