Catch of the day
I am not above making stupid puns about how fisherman catching the first adult male colossal squid is the 'big' news, and thinking myself clever for it. But I will refrain from actually using those puns, out of concern for any readers with a delicate sense of humor. Those of you who would find it funny are free to construct an alternate introduction to this post for your own private use.
Basically the story is that some fishermen down in the Antarctic caught this squid as it was feeding on their usual catch, Antarctic toothfish. The squid is just plain enormous (close to 1000 pounds), but managed to haul it in with their net, so it's in pretty good shape, though dead of course. Squid are very soft-bodied animals, and the weight of such a large one means you can't just gaff it or tie a line around it; you'll wind up with big pieces of squid in the water, and if you're lucky, a chunk on the boat.
Colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis) aren't much like giant squid (Architeuthis), beyond being squid of Lovecraftian proportions. Mesonychoteuthis probably weighs a bit more, and has hooks along its suction discs instead of tooth rings. Architeuthis uses ammonia for buoyancy, but Mesonychoteuthis probably doesn't -- that's something I'm not sure if anyone knows, but I've read that fresh specimens don't have the same overpowering smell that ammoniacal squid do. That means that while Architeuthis is probably an ambush predator, Mesonychoteuthis probably actively hunts its prey. Plus, there's all kinds of little physiological differences that I'm not too familiar with, but the upshot is that they're two very different kinds of squid that lead different lifestyles, and happen to both be absolutely gigantic.
I found a video of a colossal squid dissection, but unfortunately Totem keeps crashing Firefox when I try to watch it. I'll see if I can get it figured out.
2 comments:
I never thought I would enjoy looking photos of large squids, it is rather interesting.
They don't look like anything in our daily experience, so at first their alien qualities are unsettling for a lot of people. But they're really beautiful animals -- very fast, very agile in the water. Pictures of them taken out of water don't do them much justice -- the water on their outer skin makes them look slimy (they're actually pretty rubbery), and they deflate like a balloon. I'll see if I can find any cephalopod video.
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