
Giant squid filmed in Pacific depths, Japan scientists report - valuegram
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-giant-squid-pacific-depths-japan.html
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sharkweek
I remember when I was little, hearing that they had no real recorded evidence
of the giant squid. It immediately created this massive sense of excitement
and wonder as to what else could be swimming around in the ocean.

I still to this day am in absolute fascination of random pictures that show up
of creatures from places like the Mariana Trench. It just boggles my tiny
brain that so much biological diversity exists.

Here's a few that popped up on Reddit the other day --
<http://imgur.com/a/xkfSv>

"And lo on the seventh day, God slammed a bunch of shit He wasn't finished
with down at the bottom of a trench and hoped that nobody would notice."

~~~
CodeCube
Good god man! between the anglers (<http://i.imgur.com/zTHuT.jpg>), and the
goblin sharks (<http://i.imgur.com/40WP8.jpg>) ... stuff of nightmares!

~~~
wtracy
At the risk of turning this into Reddit, here's a humorous anglerfish video:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-BbpaNXbxg>

~~~
CodeCube
aaahahaha ... the part when the angler fish was comparing it's camouflage
slayed me.

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sosuke
This is a better link I think, it has the video of the film being aired in
Japan.

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/giant-squid-
video-j...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/giant-squid-video-japan-
photos_n_2426777.html)

~~~
charonn0
Thanks for that. I thought it was rather strange for an article about video
footage to have only two stills from the video rather than the video itself.

~~~
mistercow
You want weird, search for it on YouTube. You'll find videos Ken Burnsing
around on those same two still images, while people talk about how sweet it
is.

~~~
RobotCaleb
What does that mean?

~~~
mtinkerhess
Ken Burns is a historical documentarian known for using slow pans and zooms
over still photographs accompanied by voice-over narration.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns_effect>

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DanBC
I know the ocean is huge, but why don't we (or are we?) send hundreds of
micro-robot vehicles down?

> After around 100 missions, during which they spent 400 hours in the cramped
> submarine, the three-man crew tracked the creature from a spot some 15
> kilometres (nine miles) east of Chichi island in the north Pacific.

Because that sounds sub-optimal. Do you really need humans for tracking?

~~~
throwmeaway33
Well, how do you communicate with the robots? Radio waves don't penetrate
water.

So say you have a robot that's autonomously floating around look at stuff and
then it goes by a giant squid. There is no one to tell it "Hey! Look, a giant
squid! Stop and turn your camera at that!" so it just keeps going.

Also, I have no idea how they would know where they're currently located
(again, no GPS).. but I'm sure they have some solution.

One huge advantage I could see is potentially you wouldn't need to pressurize
anything. Optics can easily be made to work immersed in water, electronics can
be slathered in epoxy so you don't get any short circuits. Then there
shouldn't be any limit to how deep the thing can go.

~~~
epochwolf
> Also, I have no idea how they would know where they're currently located
> (again, no GPS)..

US Naval Submarines have done this for a long time.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_navigation_system>

~~~
Nrsolis
And they are good at it.

I spent some time on a submarine and navigation is one of the most critical
things to the cruise.

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johnohara
_Architeuthis, one of the "last mysteries of the ocean."_

I thought it was generally held that we know less about the world's oceans
than we do about the space around us.

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sergiotapia
If you love this sort of thing, I'd love to suggest you join:

<http://www.reddit.com/r/deepseacreatures/>

Amazing pictures from a brand new (day old) community. :)

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ferrantim
Wow. Giant squid are the coolest thing next aliens in my book. Read a 20 pg
article about them in the New Yorker once. Thanks for sharing!

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contingencies
Come in Tokyo. Giant squid spotted. We have it in our wholly Yakuza-run
scientific and diplomatically supported squidding sights. Target confirmed. We
have T minus five to wok... T minus four...

~~~
btilly
You laugh, but biologists who study squid often do like to eat them. I've
heard that at least one species is only documented in one report that includes
pictures, measurements, and a description of how it tasted.

~~~
wtracy
Architeuthis in particular actually has too much ammonia in its flesh to be
edible (some researchers compare the taste to floor cleaner).

~~~
contingencies
Good tip.

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visarga
Japanese researchers discover giant Takoyaki in unprepared form.

Why is it always the Japanese researchers that study these yummy species like
squid and whale? Is it that kind of research that ends with shipping the study
probes to a high class restaurant at the end?

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morty16
When are they going to start hunting them to extinction for delicious,
scientific reasons?

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jschuur
I can't wait for them to release the Kraken footage.

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bonchibuji
Reminds me of the the giant squid from Michael Crichton's Sphere.

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coditor
In the still it looks like Iron Squidman.

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soapdog
Its a viral for pacific rim!!!!

