Stalking the giant squid: will we ever find the largest legend of the sea?Will we ever find the largest legend of the sea? The giant squid is no ordinary calamari. It can grow up to 18 m (60 ft) long--the length of two school buses. Its eyes are larger than any other creature's on Earth. Its eight arms are studded with tooth-edged suction cups that can lash a hungry sperm whale sperm whale, largest of the toothed whales, Physeter catodon, found in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is also called cachalot. Male sperm whales may grow to more than 70 ft (21 m) long and females to 30 ft (9 m). , its main predator (enemy). But nobody has seen a giant squid alive in its natural habitat--ever. How do scientists even know the beast exists? About 200 dead giant squid have washed ashore in the past century. And several dying ones are nabbed each year by fishermen combing deep waters "Deep Waters" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the March 25 1910 issue of Collier's Weekly, and in the United Kingdom in the June 1910 issue of the Strand. with huge nets. But somehow, a real live giant squid has managed to elude humans. That's why Clyde Roper, a zoologist from the Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution, research and education center, at Washington, D.C.; founded 1846 under terms of the will of James Smithson of London, who in 1829 bequeathed his fortune to the United States to create an establishment for the "increase and diffusion of in Washington, D.C., is a man on a mission. The world's top squid expert, Roper aims to be the first person to find the notorious sea monster Sea´ mon´ster 1. (Zool.) Any large sea animal. . In January 1999, Roper and his team will head to Kaikoura, an underwater canyon off the coast of New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. . Roper himself will plummet 1,100 m (3,609 ft) into the canyon in a submersible submersible, small, mobile undersea research vessel capable of functioning in the ocean depths. Development of a great variety of submersibles during the later 1950s and 1960s came about as a result of improved technology and in response to a demonstrated need for , or minisubmarine. His dream? To face a giant squid, eye-to-giant-eye. SLIPPERIEST SQUID OF ALL Roper has already tried to catch the giant squid twice--on videotape. He's traveled to the Azores islands and, last February, to Kaikoura for the first time. The expeditions' camera systems were crafty, but the squid were craftier. "Our cameras in Kaikoura caught deep-sea sharks, eels, jellyfish jellyfish, common name for the free-swimming stage (see polyp and medusa), of certain invertebrate animals of the phylum Cnidaria (the coelenterates). The body of a jellyfish is shaped like a bell or umbrella, with a clear, jellylike material filling most of the , small squid--but no giant squid," says Roper. The squid squad was squelched squelch v. squelched, squelch·ing, squelch·es v.tr. 1. To crush by or as if by trampling; squash. 2. . You'd think a one-ton squid would be hard to miss. The creatures lurk in oceans all around the world, and Roper thinks they're common animals. In fact, while in Kaikoura, Roper found about 5,000 squid beaks--three of them from giant squid--in the stomach of a dead beached sperm whale. Sperm whales can't digest these tough mouth parts (see miniposter, pp. 12-13). But giant squid are slippery suckers. "They must live in spots where we seldom set our gear. We think they live in deep water, about 700-1,200 m (2,297-3,937 ft) down," says Roper. "If you spent a day hunting in a sub, you'd think you're covering a lot of territory. But relative to the amount of water in the ocean, you're really not." Roper and his team chose Kaikoura because it's a year-round picnic spot for sperm whales. And where there are sperm whales, there may be squid. In fact, chunks of giant squid are often found floating on the water's surface above Kaikoura Canyon--probably crumbs left over from a sperm-whale feast. CANDID SQUID CAMERA Roper and his team used three high-tech video-camera systems to hunt for giant squid in the Kaikoura mission: The Odyssey IIB IIB Institute for Independent Business IIB Institute of International Business IIB Institute of International Bankers IIB International Investment Bank IIB Indian Institute of Banking & Finance IIB Included in Bankruptcy IIB Ice, Ice, Baby , the RopeCam, and the Crittercam. The Odyssey is a 2 m-long (6.5 ft) robotic vehicle with a camera in its nose. The team sent the Odyssey spiraling 750 m (2,460 ft) into the canyon. It spotted jellyfish, shrimp, and other creatures--but no squid. RopeCams (video cameras rigged to cables) captured even more spectacular views of the deep sea. The apparatus pumped smelly, ground-up fish into the water, attracting sharks, eels, and crabs. Instead of giant squid, the RopeCams spied spied v. Past tense and past participle of spy. a feisty pair of 0.5 m-long (2 ft) New Zealand arrow squid Many squid species are referred to as arrow squid, including:
But Roper's best chance to catch the squid in action was to let a sperm whale do the videotaping. The "Crittercam" has a suction cup at its base that scientists attach to the head of a sperm whale. Whatever the whale sees, the Crittercam records. But a wild sperm whale isn't like the friendly whale in Free Willy. How does Roper get close enough to attach the camera? "Very carefully," he explains. "In the Azores, we quietly paddled up in an inflatable sea kayak A Sea kayak or touring kayak is a kayak developed for the sport of paddling on open waters of lakes, bays, and the ocean. Sea kayaks are seaworthy small boats with a covered deck and the ability to incorporate a spraydeck. , diagonally, to a surfaced whale. Then, we stuck the camera right on its head." Unfortunately, the tail end of a cyclone (Pacific hurricane A Pacific hurricane is a tropical cyclone that develops in the northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean. For organizational purposes, the Pacific Ocean is divided into three regions: the eastern, (North America to 140°W), central (140°W to the International Date Line), and ) churned up the Kaikoura sea just when the expedition was preparing to use the Crittercam. The rough seas prevented Roper from getting close to a whale to attach the camera. Again--no pictures of the giant squid. THE FINAL FRONTIER? "I believe the chances of success for the next expedition are better than ever," Roper says. "We learned so much about the squid's habitat in the first two missions." Instead of the three cameras, Roper himself will dive deep into the Kaikoura Canyon in the minisub Johnson Sea-Link. "The submersible will have instruments unsurpassed by modern technology--the human eyes and brain," says Roper. With luck, he will peer through the sub's clear plastic bubble right into the basketball-sized eyes of a giant squid. Even a glimpse may answer basic questions about the animal's behavior: how it catches food, or where it "hangs out"--near the bottom of the sea or in mid-water. The third squid search won't be a one-track mission, however. Roper and other scientists will explore the biodiversity--the many different species of life--that live in Kaikoura's deep-sea environment. They hope to find invertebrates that contain cancer-fighting substances and to locate underwater volcanoes. "Once, I was scuba diving scuba diving Swimming done underwater with a self-contained underwater-breathing apparatus (scuba), as opposed to skin diving, which requires only a snorkel, goggles, and flippers. Scuba gear was invented by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Émile Gagnan in 1943. in the Pacific, and a 3 m-long (10 ft) squid slashed me in the face," Roper says. "I also got bitten by one. They are powerful and mean!" Does Roper fear getting attacked by a giant squid when he dives In the mini sub? It may happen, he admits--but this time, he's looking forward to it. |
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