EntertainmentIn Search of the Giant Squid
Mon, Mar 25 2007
For over 2,000 years the giant squid has inspired fear, fascination, inspiration and fantastic stories. The question is "is this fact or fiction"?
The Giant Squid is the most mysterious, reclusive animal on the planet long as two school buses, weigh up to two (boneless) tons and has the biggest eyes on earth. It swims the oceans at great depths. No one has ever seen a living Giant Squid. Only dead examples have been found.
These soft-bodied are fast-moving carnivores that catch prey with their tentacles, then poison it with a bite from beak-like jaws. They move by squirting water from the mantle through the siphon, a type of jet propulsion. The Giant Squid's only enemy is the sperm whale, who hunts it deep in the ocean. But what is a sperm whale? Herman Melville, in his famous 1851 novel, Moby Dick, describes a duel to the death between a sperm whale and a giant squid.
The single most fascinating thing about the giant squid is that it's never been seen by anybody. Scientist for years have been searching the giant squid, as some are still searching the holly grail, but none of them have found a healthy giant squid.
Our modern sources of information about the giant squid are far less dramatic. Giant squid carcasses have been found in fishermen's nets, in the bellies of sperm whales, and washed ashore all over the world. From these specimens, scientists have gleaned much about the lives and likely habits of these intriguing deep sea dwellers.
What do we know about the giant squid?
- They are huge! Giant squid are massive invertebrates that reach up to 60 feet in length and weigh 1,000 lb. or more.
- They have the world's largest eyes! Giant squid eyes are as big as a human head.
- They are fast growing! Giant squid may grow as much as 25 feet in their first year.
- They aredenizens of the deep! Giant squid live at a depth of between 650 and 2,600 feet.
- They are true blue bloods! All squids have clear blue blood, based on copper rather than iron.
- They are lousy hors d'oeuvres! Instead of saline, a giant squid's muscles are filled with ammonia.
- They are tough! Large sucker marks found on sperm whales, the adult giant squid's only predator, prove that although they often lose the battle, giant squid don't give up without a fight.
Despite the fact that no modern scientist has seen a live giant squid, there is absolutely no doubt that they still live many hundreds, maybe even thousands, of metres below the surface of the sea.
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