Sea Monsters: Search for the Giant Squid

On Mexico's Sea of Cortez a marine

biologist prepares to encounter

an animal

local fisherman fear

more than sharks.

He is exploring a nether-world

between fantasy and fact,

pursuing a legendary monster of

the deep that does, in fact, exits...

Around the world,

strange carcasses drift ashore,

and fishermen catch huge creatures

they have never seen before.

Bit by bit, the secret life of this

strange animal is becoming known.

We can study its anatomy and the

behavior of its smaller relatives -

the bizarre and wonderful creatures

called cephalopods.

If they did live anywhere

where a man lived,

they would make mince-meat

of him in no time.

Fiction has always branded the giant

squid a ferocious enemy of man,

and some of its close relations

can be terrifying indeed.

Master of the deep ocean, the

sperm whale knows what we cannot,

but recently scientists have

found a way to learn its secrets.

"Whales were known to feed

on squids,

so it made sense to me try to

use the sperm whale

as our "hound dog" to lead

us to the giant squid.

"We really don't know very much

about what happens to whales

once they leave the surface.

So we're working with a mystery

that is hunting a mystery."

Descend with us now

into the dark and mysterious world

of the sperm whale

and its fearsome quarry,

Architeuthis, the giant squid.

For most of human history the ocean

has seemed a terrifying place.

Superstitious sailors reported many

strange sightings at sea.

Their stories summoned up a fantastic

variety of monsters

that threatened them.

These ominous creatures were often

blamed when disaster struck-

as it frequently did.

Perhaps the most feared of all was

called "the Kraken"

a many-armed beast of incredible

size and strength.

But most sea monsters proved to be

harmless or non-existent.

All but "the Kraken" - known

today as the giant squid.

The national Museum of Natural

History in Washington, D.C.

houses over a hundred thousand

squid specimens -

one of the largest collections in

the world.

In this working laboratory,

Smithsonian zoologist Dr. Clyde

Roper is engrossed

in the study of cephalopods,

such as octopuses, cuttlefish,

and squid -

and he welcomes the notoriety

of the giant squid.

"People have to have their monsters,

for some reason,

and, uh, of course squid make a

perfect monster

because I really think that, um,

especially for many

young people today

that the giant squid has become

the new dinosaur."

It's called Architeuthis,

Greek for "the ruling squid".

It is the perfect sea monster

in fantasy,

and a formidable predator in fact.

It dwarfs most other life in the sea.

It deploys a writhing mass of

suckered arms and tentacles

which ensnare its prey and jam it

into a parrot-like beak.

It glares upon the world with the

largest eyes in the animal kingdom.

Clyde Roper has a life-long

passion for the giant squid,

and is determined to see one

alive in its natural habitat.

It all began when he was a teenager,

working as a lobster fisherman

in New Hampshire.

"It doesn't take very long, when

you're working on, on cephalopods...

"squids especially, uh,

become aware

that giant squids actually exist.

"and, as a idealistic young fellow,

I was pretty, um,

incensed that so many...

"mis-truths could be told about

these magnificent animals.

And, as I got deeper and

deeper into it,

I understood why there were so

many misunderstandings

and that is because there were

so few specimens

that had ever been found,

no giant squid had ever

been seen alive and,

until this day, has never been

seen alive and photographed.

So, I became interested in trying

to learn about these animals

just so I could tell the truth about

them and try to dispel the myths."

The aura of terrifying mystery

is not easily dispelled.

A report, by a French warship,

of an encounter with a giant squid

fired the imagination of

novelist Jules Verne.

His classic 20,000 leagues Under the

Sea was published in 1870.

Verne's fictional squid updated the

ship-eating legend of the Kraken.

This squid did not hesitate

to attack the Nautilus,

Captain Nemo's electric submarine.

"Giant squid astern, sir!"

The terror of the giant squid

may be fictional,

but its mystery is very real.

Once in a while, a giant squid

carcass will be washed ashore.

Often, these are juvenile squid -

more bizarre and pathetic

than threatening.

Only an expert can tell its species,

and that it could have grown to

may times this size.

In modern times, more and more giant

squid have been caught by fishermen

as they work in deeper water.

They are almost always dead, or nearly so,

when brought aboard.

Rarely does a scientist get to

examine a newly caught specimen,

and never a live one.

Most have turned up in the waters

around New Zealand,

Norway, and Newfoundland.

This one, measuring more than 30

feet, was caught off Tasmania.

From such fragmentary evidence,

scientists conclude that giant

squid live in deep water

and that they are predators.

They are believed to live only a few

years and to grow very rapidly -

no one knows how large.

The biggest actually measured

was almost 60 feet

and weighed about a ton.

It is the world's largest and most

powerful invertebrate,

portrayed as a villain

in many tales of the sea.

"Giant squid have a reputation

for being vindictive

and vicious and fierce."

"They have no reason t be, uh,

vindictive and fierce.

They normally don't interact

with human beings.

Uh, in fact, I wish they would

act a little more,

react with human beings

so that we could find them.

At any rate, I think the reputation

is certainly not deserved at all.

"Because they're so interesting,

on their own account, that we don't

need to make things up about them.

"Squids are really exciting to me

because they have wonderful

adaptations for the,

for their life in the sea,

and these include things like:

like photophores or light organs,

where they can flash and glow,

uh, different colors;

they are fast animals; they're

powerful; some like cat's claws to,

to collect their prey; uh, some

of really are fascinating animals."

Squid are weird and wonderful -

they, and their close relatives,

have been called "aliens

from inner space."

Indeed, they ride the underwater

currents with a serenity

that seems almost supernatural.

Squid are remarkably intelligent,

and their primary nerve fibers are

the largest in the animal kingdom -

a hundred times the diameter

of humans.

Thousands of multi-celled organs,

called chromatophores,

are scattered across their skin.

Each, receives signals directly

from the brain.

This allows cuttlefish and squid to

transform their appearance -

in less than a second.

These changes in appearance

provide camouflage

and a dramatic means of

communication.

From seductive yearnings to

aggressive warnings,

all can be conveyed by resplendent

displays of light and color.

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