For reference, Tim's original description is here:
Sighting of Possible Large Cephalopod Near Portugal with further details in following posts.
In addition to the sensible biological objections Steve raises above, it seems to me that the observations are not consistent with any other observation of large cephalopods. The description of the size, behavior, pattern of luminescence, and geographic location are quite different from any sighting of any large cephalopod ever reported. I understand that you very much want to convince people that what you saw was a tremendous squid, but if that were the case, you would likely find things became more consistent with your memories as you discuss this in a forum with experts, while, in fact, you are finding yourself arguing hypothetical ways that this hypothetical giant squid might be different than every other cephalopod ever studied. If it's a squid that's completely unlike every other squid in every way except gross shape and living in the water, why assume it's a squid at all?
As the only eyewitness, if you insist it was a squid for your own personal belief reasons, in the absence of any other evidence, no one can prove anything one way or another, but what you have described is not consistent with any cephalopod supported by any other evidence than your account, so if you're hoping that repeating the story is going to eventually lead to someone giving you an answer you like better, they'd be bucking the trend.
You requested that you not be considered a crackpot, but frankly, coming up with rationalizations to support the conclusion you want to believe in the face of all evidence to the contrary is typical crackpot behavior. Steve is a world-class expert in giant squids (and a number of other cephalopod taxa, and toothed whales, and the ecology of other marine organisms)... I wouldn't say that his opinions are beyond questioning, but suggesting "maybe everything Steve said is completely wrong" should not be done lightly. If your theory about what you saw requires that, I think you need to give some very serious thought to re-evaluating it.
In any case, it was certainly not
Mesonychoteuthis hamiltonii based on size, location, and description, so we should probably steer this thread back to discussion of the upcoming thaw of the large specimen of that species... (admittedly, I strayed pretty far off-topic in debating extrapolation of squid size based on beak size, too
)
I'm going to copy the posts from the "squid sucker marks on whales" and this thread related to Tim's eyewitness account into a new thread for discussion there.
The new thread can be found here:
Sighting of Possible Large Cephalopod Near Portugal
I moved the content originally in the "sucker marks on whales" there and copied the relevant posts from here, so that continuity would be maintained here, but please put any further discussion of the topic in the new thread, and ask questions pertaining to the examination of the Te Papa specimen and more generally about
Mesonychoteuthis biology here.
so is that the squid in the blue tarp on the web cam? 
to TONMO, ecbaxter.
