Giant Squid Washes Up on Australia Beach

[tmfleo]

Giant Squid Washes Up on Australia Beach
By Associated Press
Wed Jul 11, 1:03 PM

HOBART, Australia - A squid as long as a bus and weighing 550 pounds washed up on an Australian beach, officials said Wednesday. "It is a whopper," said Genefor Walker-Smith, a zoologist who studies invertebrates at the Tasmanian Museum.

Giant squid live in waters off southern Australia and New Zealand _ where a half-ton colossus, believed to be the world's largest, was caught in February. They attract the sperm whales that feed on them.

The dead squid, measuring 3 feet across at its widest point and 26 feet from the tip of its body to the end of its tentacles, was found early Wednesday by a beachcomber at Ocean Beach on the island state of Tasmania's west coast, the museum said.

The squid was expected to be taken to the museum, where DNA and other scientific tests would be carried out before it is preserved and possibly put on public display.

For anyone thinking of a calamari feast, Walker-Smith said giant squid contain high levels of ammonia in their bodies as a buoyancy aid.

"It would not taste very nice at all," she said.

New Zealand fishermen netted a 1,100-pound, 33-foot-long squid in the Southern Ocean in February. It is widely believed to be the largest specimen of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid, ever caught.

Experts believe the creatures, which have long been one of the most mysterious denizens of the deep ocean, may grow even bigger _ up to 46-feet long.


http://www.comcast.net/news/strange/...11/712131.html

[MunkE]

if we can go to outer-friggin-space and land on planets and have the technological advances to send sattelites even farther and check out planets even farther away... how come we can barely explore the bottom of the ocean? i want to see one of those alive in a tank at the zoo!

[Peter]

Originally Posted by MunkE

if we can go to outer-friggin-space

Where is that? Can I go?.......

But seriously:

Originally Posted by MunkE

if we can go to outer-friggin-space and land on planets and have the technological advances to send sattelites even farther and check out planets even farther away... how come we can barely explore the bottom of the ocean?

I agree; the technology exists to design and engineer robotic ocean explorers with the ability to withstand the enormous pressures of several miles. It would be great practice for scientists and engineers who hope to explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn with robotic probes in the same manner. We need to explore and understand the unknown on our planet before we can fully appreciate the same millions of miles away.

Originally Posted by MunkE

i want to see one of those alive in a tank at the zoo!

Personally I'd settle for pictures and movies of these beings taken by a deep ocean explorer in their natural habitat rather than having to keep them unnaturally confined in a tank as a sideshow where they really don't belong.

[Chicubswally]

Un--outer-friggin-space--believable!

[Salzy]

Just imagine walking up on that thing on the beach. I'd be sure to have a buddy, wrap a couple tentacle around myself like it's got me and get a bunch of sweet "mock" squid attack photos. Oh, the cool ideas and poses going through my mind. Dang right. Not many people have seen a giant squid, much less one attacking a guy. Hehe.

[tmfleo]

Thats a whole lot of calamari lol. I agree with Peter thou (Personally I'd settle for pictures and movies of these beings taken by a deep ocean explorer in their natural habitat rather than having to keep them unnaturally confined in a tank as a sideshow where they really don't belong.)

[rey]

Originally Posted by Salzy

Just imagine walking up on that thing on the beach. I'd be sure to have a buddy, wrap a couple tentacle around myself like it's got me and get a bunch of sweet "mock" squid attack photos. Oh, the cool ideas and poses going through my mind. Dang right. Not many people have seen a giant squid, much less one attacking a guy. Hehe.

lmaaoooooo....

i wouldnt mind seeing one in a tank. but only if it was a extremely large tank. twice the length of football field, if not larger. Of course no one will spend that much money to house one ....or will they?

there was that video of the one seen eating a piece of fish off this one hook, i think it was the Japanese who captured the image. It was a little bit low quality pixelation, discovery channels need to send their planet earth crew down there!

and as for the space exploration. It is said that we humans know more about space, than the oceans in our planets. I think that would be the next feat. Not small rocks with ancient microbes on it.

Ill trade a microbe for a squid anytime.