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Go Home The Kraken Wakes

THE VINE MAY 6, 2008

The Kraken Wakes

BY BRITT PETERSON

In other cool animal news, a group of scientists in New Zealand have released more information about that colossal squid carcass they've been studying for the past year. The 32-foot-long squid has eyes about the size of beachballs, and may not even be full-grown—it's possibly even just 2/3 the size of a mature adult.

Very few people have ever seen a colossal squid alive, and only a few blurry evocative photos exist; as this classic New Yorker article (by TNR contributing editor David Grann) explains, the colossal squid is one of the world's only living myths, a deeply misunderstood creature that may as well be imaginary for the little we know about it. The New Zealand scientists have been keeping up an informative and funny blog about the squid, including lots of goopy, membraney photos of cephalopod bits, for the curious.  

--Britt Peterson

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19 comments

Great stuff, Britt.  Great links, too.   These will keep me busy, if not work-relatedly productive, for the rest of the day.

- boneill

May 6, 2008 at 4:47pm

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Fascinating creature. We know so little yet of life beneath the surface of the world's oceans. I have argues for years for a major ramp - up in funding to plumb the depths of the oceans and catalogue previously unknown life - forms and study the known ones further.  There is a lot of biodiversity down there; let's have at it.

- liberal reformer

May 6, 2008 at 4:49pm

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I thought they were filmed off the coast of Japan in 2005?: www.msnbc.msn.com/.../9503272

Are those a different kind of giant squid?

- theferrarigirl

May 6, 2008 at 5:23pm

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Well, there are giant squids, and then there are colossal squids. They're closely related (check out this wonderfully grouchy Salon post about the difference: machinist.salon.com/.../big_squid) but they're not exactly the same. The one filmed off the coast of Japan (I linked to some images in my post, actually) is a giant squid; the one being autopsied in New Zealand is a colossal squid. Sorry for any confusion.

- Britt Peterson

May 6, 2008 at 5:34pm

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I remember in an oceanography class in college coming to the (obvious to people smarter than me) conclusion that life on land is the small minority of life on earth.   It was one of those breath-sucking moments that change the way you look at things.  

- boneill

May 6, 2008 at 6:47pm

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I've been obsessed with giant squids ever since I was a kid and read Peter Benchley's "Beast" and Michael Crichton's "Sphere."

In fact, whenever I see some of those photos, my heart kind of sinks because it seems so much smaller than I had imagined--somehow, in my mind the animal had grown to be as big as an office building.

So there's never been a photo or a confirmed live sighting of a colossal squid, as opposed to a giant squid?

- alexmparker

May 6, 2008 at 6:55pm

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Fantastic links. Does anyone remember if the squid was alive when it was accidentally "netted"? (Didn't notice mention of this in the links.)

- hemlock41

May 6, 2008 at 7:38pm

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By analogy you might say that John Holmes had a giant squid and that areomonas has...well, you get the picture.

- aeromonas

May 7, 2008 at 9:19am

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Hemlock, according to this BBC article the squid was partially alive when it was trapped(news.bbc.co.uk/.../6385071.stm) and seems to have died in the process of being reeled in and frozen for transportation. And Alex, Wikipedia has a list of reported and partial sightings (en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of_Colossal_Squid_specimens_and_sightings) including at least one photographed colossal squid. If you find the photo anywhere online, I'd love to see it.

- Britt Peterson

May 7, 2008 at 11:27am

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"The Kraken Wakes." My truthful word...not just the title of a very old SF novel, but the title of the BRITISH edition no less. John Wyndham, yes? Published in the US as "Out of the Deeps." Not actually about giant squid, of course, but close enough for a title. Especially a title about a real kraken.

- AlanK

May 7, 2008 at 2:52pm

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(This could well be a triple post, if so, apologies.)

Super post. I second all of the above fascination with the giant, coloss...really big squid.

This blog is one of the most fun, most educational and donw right coolest on the net. A real gem.  

I'm sure a TNR mug would be awarded for that photo Britt, which I'd love to see. The images you link too just don't do the beast justice. (I hear Plumer and Chait are selling them on ebay for 100 a pop. Maybe, they could spare one?).

Thanks to all the contributers on this blog. Great work folks.

- The Ignorant Populist

May 7, 2008 at 5:50pm

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Thanks for the additional links, Britt. Great post.

- hemlock41

May 7, 2008 at 11:47pm

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Watch out, Stumpers and Plankton. E&E's becoming the freshest, liveliest and most interesting place on tnr.com. Great job.

More Dayo posts, pls. Also, some healthy debate from time to time with people not entirely convinced by the more excitable greenies' arguments.

- teplukhin2you

May 8, 2008 at 6:20am

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The colossal squid would have to be the largest invertebrate animal, no?

It and it's fellow cephalopods are also among the smartest invertebrates.  I saw some NOVA program or something like it (NOVA has really gone to the dogs, btw) outlining some behavioral biologists' efforts to train giant octopuses to negotiate a complex maze.  By whatever metric they were using to judge trainability, they reckoned the octopuses were as trainable as dogs.

- aeromonas

May 8, 2008 at 8:57am

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the quarrel about big, giant, colossal...to quote a wonderful headline, I think from AP:

squid pros row.

- FBC

May 8, 2008 at 9:26am

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I'll agree with tep about the E & E blog, but it looks like the old guard has jealously killed it off...it's been pretty quite the last 24-48 hours.

(Or maybe BP didn't like the squid story and killed off all funding....I'm kidding on all this of course, but I miss the activity here)

- jet

May 8, 2008 at 11:25am

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Intriguing. The imagination runs wild in that familiar boyish wonderment. The beast and its environ are fertile for such a thing. Thanks.

- boxofrox

May 8, 2008 at 11:41am

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jet - are you saying that the Brits pinched Britt's squid?

(tip: adaglas)

- teplukhin2you

May 8, 2008 at 6:54pm

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Good point tep, now that you mention it....SAS probably...in which case, Britt should be miffed at the Brits

- jet

May 8, 2008 at 10:59pm

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