Giant Sqiud
The giant squid was thought to be just a myth until fairly recently. The giant squid remains largely a mystery to scientists even though it is the biggest invertebrate on Earth. The largest one ever found measured 59 feet in and weighed nearly a ton. Their inhospitable deep-sea habitat has made them difficult to study, and almost everything scientists know about them is from carcasses that have washed up on beaches or been brought in by fishermen. Lately, however, their luck in studying these creatures have begun to change.
In 2004, Japanese researchers took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat, and in July 2012, a live adult was first filmed in its natural habitat off Chichijima and in 2015, another video sighting was released. In June 2019, scientists reported a second video appearance and for the first time in waters of the United States, of a giant squid in its deepwater habitat. Giant squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, measuring about 10 inches in diameter. Like other squid species, they have eight arms and two longer feeding tentacles that help them bring food to their mouths. Their diet most likely consists of fish, shrimp, and other squid, and some think they might even attack and eat small whales. Giant squid are widespread, occurring in all of the world's oceans except for extreme polar or tropical areas. They are usually found near continental and island slopes from the North Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland, Norway, the northern British Isles, Spain and the oceanic islands of the Azores and Madeira, the South Atlantic around southern Africa, the North Pacific around Japan, and the southwestern Pacific around New Zealand and Australia. In November 2006 American explorer and diver Scott Cassell led an expedition to the Gulf of California with the goal of filming a giant squid in its natural habitat. The team deployed a filming method using a Humboldt squid carrying device a specially designed camera clipped to its fin. The camera wearing squid caught on video what was claimed to be a giant squid, with an estimated length of 40 feet. Cassell later distanced himself from this documentary, saying that it contained multiple factual and scientific errors. On 19 June 2019, in an expedition run by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA), called the Journey to Midnight, biologists Nathan J. Robinson and Edith Widder captured a video of a young Giant Squid at a depth of 2,490 feet in the Gulf of Mexico. Michael Vecchione, a NOAA Fisheries zoologist, confirmed that the footage taken was that of the genus Architeuthis, and that the organism filmed measured at somewhere between 10 and12 feet.
Scientists hope they can learn more about the diversity of life in our world, the secrets that lie in the depths of the sea, and how animals live in such cold and dark environments through the study of giant squids. I believe that it is incredibly fascinating that the concrete evidence and discovery of this creature only happened a few years, in my lifetime. I watched a video in class about how the giant squid was lured to be caught on video and that process is also very interesting to me. This gives me hope for a career in marine biology because obviously there is still so much more to be researched and discovered.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/g/giant-squid/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid
In 2004, Japanese researchers took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat, and in July 2012, a live adult was first filmed in its natural habitat off Chichijima and in 2015, another video sighting was released. In June 2019, scientists reported a second video appearance and for the first time in waters of the United States, of a giant squid in its deepwater habitat. Giant squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, measuring about 10 inches in diameter. Like other squid species, they have eight arms and two longer feeding tentacles that help them bring food to their mouths. Their diet most likely consists of fish, shrimp, and other squid, and some think they might even attack and eat small whales. Giant squid are widespread, occurring in all of the world's oceans except for extreme polar or tropical areas. They are usually found near continental and island slopes from the North Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland, Norway, the northern British Isles, Spain and the oceanic islands of the Azores and Madeira, the South Atlantic around southern Africa, the North Pacific around Japan, and the southwestern Pacific around New Zealand and Australia. In November 2006 American explorer and diver Scott Cassell led an expedition to the Gulf of California with the goal of filming a giant squid in its natural habitat. The team deployed a filming method using a Humboldt squid carrying device a specially designed camera clipped to its fin. The camera wearing squid caught on video what was claimed to be a giant squid, with an estimated length of 40 feet. Cassell later distanced himself from this documentary, saying that it contained multiple factual and scientific errors. On 19 June 2019, in an expedition run by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA), called the Journey to Midnight, biologists Nathan J. Robinson and Edith Widder captured a video of a young Giant Squid at a depth of 2,490 feet in the Gulf of Mexico. Michael Vecchione, a NOAA Fisheries zoologist, confirmed that the footage taken was that of the genus Architeuthis, and that the organism filmed measured at somewhere between 10 and12 feet.
Scientists hope they can learn more about the diversity of life in our world, the secrets that lie in the depths of the sea, and how animals live in such cold and dark environments through the study of giant squids. I believe that it is incredibly fascinating that the concrete evidence and discovery of this creature only happened a few years, in my lifetime. I watched a video in class about how the giant squid was lured to be caught on video and that process is also very interesting to me. This gives me hope for a career in marine biology because obviously there is still so much more to be researched and discovered.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/g/giant-squid/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid