Giant squid invades the North Coast

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, January 24, 2013

North Coasters seem to have a natural affinity for all things maritime, including the denizens of the deep. While most of the squid we see around here are the Humboldts that wash up, bait or calamari on a plate, its the legendary GIANT SQUID, Architeuthis, that has been in the news lately.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL announced that after more than 100 missions, National Science Museum of Japan researcher TSUNEMI KUBODERA and his crew, using a submersible, reported that they spotted, tracked and filmed the elusive giant squid (http://tinyurl.com/squidnews).

The critter is pictured in still shots from the video, courtesy of the Discovery Channel, which will show Kuboderas video on Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real, at 8 p.m. Sunday as the season finale of Curiosity.

The researchers filmed the squid as it swam from a depth of about 2,000 feet to about 3,000 feet. It was estimated at about 9 feet long, but its two longest arms were mysteriously missing. With them, the critter would have probably have been about 26 feet long.

The same scientist also lured a giant squid to the oceans surface in 2006 (http://tinyurl.com/squid2006), but this recent sighting is far more significant because the creature was filmed in its natural habitat. Both times, the squid were spotted in the same area nine miles off the coast of Japan in the North Pacific Ocean.

It was shining and so beautiful, Kubodera said. I was so thrilled when I saw it firsthand, but I was confident we would because we rigorously researched the areas we might find it, based on past data.

Elleda Wilson