[Mb-civic] Scientists Photograph Giant Squid in Wild - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Scientists Photograph Giant Squid in Wild

By HIROKO TABUCHI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; 1:48 AM

TOKYO -- The giant squid can be found in books and in myths, but for the 
first time, a team of Japanese scientists has captured on film one of 
the most mysterious creatures of the deep-sea in its natural habitat.

The team led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in 
Tokyo, tracked the 26-foot long Architeuthis as it attacked prey nearly 
3,000 feet deep off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands.

"We believe this is the first time a grown giant squid has been captured 
on camera in its natural habitat," said Kyoichi Mori, a marine 
researcher who co-authored a piece in Wednesday's issue of the 
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

The camera was operated by remote control during research at the end of 
October 2004, Mori told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Mori said the giant squid, purplish red like its smaller brethren, 
attacked its quarry aggressively, calling into question the image of the 
animal as lethargic and slow moving.

"Contrary to belief that the giant squid is relatively inactive, the 
squid we captured on film actively used its enormous tentacles to go 
after prey," Mori said.

"It went after some bait that we had on the end of the camera and became 
stuck, and left behind a tentacle" about six yards long, Mori said.

Kubodera, also reached by the AP, said researchers ran DNA tests on the 
tentacle and found it matched those of other giant squids found around 
Japan.

"But other sightings were of smaller, or very injured squids washed 
toward the shore _ or of parts of a giant squid," Kubodera said. "This 
is the first time a full-grown, healthy squid has been sighted in its 
natural environment in deep water."

Kubodera said the giant squid's tentacle would not grow back, but the 
squid's life was not in danger.

Jim Barry, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research 
Institute in California, has searched for giant squid on his own 
expeditions without luck.

"It's the holy grail of deep sea animals," he said. "It's one that we 
have never seen alive, and now someone has video of one."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/27/AR2005092701818.html?nav=hcmodule
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