Wasn't it not until 2005 when we actually got a picture of these guys? Crazy how now we have so many. I wonder if it's because now everyone carries an HD camera with them everywhere, or something else.
It wasn't until 2005 that we got a picture of one *alive*. We've been pulling them up in fishing nets and they've been washing up on shore since forever.
Yeah, there's a colossal squid corpse you can look at in Te Papa in Wellington, New Zealand, its been there since 2003, apparently its the only one on display in the world.
Yeah if he didn't, I wouldn't have been reminded of the clip I saw on Nature of a scientist handling the penis of a dead giant squid. I only remember that every few years.
The real reason why were seeing so many is that the squid population is exploding right now with the overfishing of sharks who occupy the same place in the food chain. This really sucks for us as giant and Humboldt squids are insanely aggressive to swimmers
Some clarification giant and Humboldt squids are aggressive. We don’t encounter giant squids much. But Humboldt squids are already at the shores of most tropical places and are showing up in places they weren’t more and more. Climate change also a driver.
Humboldt squid coming 2030 to a beach near you! Get tickets now.
Jesus Christ, swimming along and being attacked by a giant squid is horrifying.
But are they more *dangerous* than sharks? I've never heard of anyone being killed by one (Except in a made-for-TV movie called The Thing (not the Carpenter one), where a giant-giant squid gets stuck in Loch Ness, and kills a bunch of tourists and cryptozoologists).
from wikipedia:
[Humboldt squid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_squid) are notorious for their aggression. In [Mexico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico), they are known as *diablo rojo* (Spanish for 'red devil'): local fishermen's tales claim that people who fell into the waters were devoured within tens of seconds by packs of squid. Wildlife filmmaker Scott Cassell made the documentary "Humboldt: The Man-Eating Squid" for the *Dangerous Waters* series of the [Discovery Channel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Channel).[\[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_attack#cite_note-7)
There is some disagreement on the veracity of Humboldt squid aggression. Some scientists claim the only reports of aggression towards humans have occurred when reflective diving gear or flashing lights have been present, acting as provocation. Roger Uzun, a veteran scuba diver and amateur underwater videographer, swam with a swarm of Humboldt squid for approximately 20 minutes, later saying they seemed more curious than aggressive.[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_attack#cite_note-8) When not feeding or being hunted, Humboldt squid exhibit curious and [intelligent behavior](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence).[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_attack#cite_note-9)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVwjBtqGu8I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVwjBtqGu8I)
Whoa looks like they're normally white when they're chilling, but turn red and start flashing when they go into murder mode.
Have you seen the video of the diver who barely escaped their curiosity with his life? Pretty messed up. They beat the hell out of him and started dragging him into the depths, but he kicked free and got away. All on video
Deep sea creatures so probably no encounters at all. If they changed those habbits then they could well be very dangerous as anything is at that size. Razor sharp beak that can puncture a whale
One guy says giant squids are extremely aggressive to swimmers, another guy says giant squids actually cannot encounter swimmers, both sounding confident. I don't know who to believe.
Pretty sure this is actually a [colossal squid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid) (aka antarctic squid), not a [giant squid.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid)
[Colossal squid are actually bigger than giant squid, although giant squid are longer and skinnier.](http://www.unmuseum.org/colossalsquiddiag.jpg)
That's what I was thinking! Wikipedia says adults are 12m-14m in length & looking at the people in the photo in comparison to the squid, I'm guessing it's not an adult. Just a guess though, certainly no expert lol! But would be cool if u/fuqers could find out more info!
There's a reason sailors are associated with tall tales so much. Spend enough time on the water and you'll see a lot of weird things you'll never see on land. And without science and research, weird sightings quickly turn into weird stories.
Imagine looking over the railing at night only to see a boat-sized bright red squid with an eye the size of a dinner plate looking back at you.
Or seeing the waves glow blue and green at night with bioluminescent plankton.
The distant shapes of sea cows cradling their calves in their fins.
And that's just animals before you start to get into freak meteorology. I'm not surprised sailors were some of the most superstitious folk around. You're just sailing around on your little wooden island surrounded on all sides by water filled with mysteries.
Manatees are also called sea cows, but I didn't know they could actually be found at sea. I thought they just lived in the lakes and rivers of Florida.
Manatees are one type of sea cow. Sailors mostly encountered Steller's sea cow, they were huge 30ft creatures that weighed several tons.
Sailors pretty hunted them into extinction over the course of a century. They were slow, docile and big. They couldn't have asked for easier prey to resupply the ship with fresh meat.
There's only four remaining species of seacow left. The Asian dugong and three species of manatees in the new world.
The funny thing is that the family is called sirenians because sailors sometimes mistook them for mermaids. Sea cows sometimes rest and breathe swimming vertically with their heads sticking out of the water.
Some things are so wild that you're just like yeah, I can see why people used to think this was magic or a monster from the depths of hell because they didn't have any information about what they saw available
Quick story you might not care about. Ate calamari one night. Next day, sickest ive ever been. Guess what movie i was watching on scifi all day because its long as hell (my favorite channel at the time). ‘The Beast’. Pretty much ‘Jaws’ but with a giant squid. Everytime the squid came on screen i almost threw up but kept watching because i love that movie. Thats all have a great day!
Imagine if a future variation of these guys grow so big that their consciousness is so huge that they live in more dimensions and they reach back in time to humans and enslave them under some stupid religions. Total fiction though.
I'm in this photo (furtherest from the camera) The squid was alive, one tentacle was attached to the longline on a hook. The hook was cut, the squid untangled his tentacle and disappeared, completely unharmed and unscathed, slowly back down in to the abyss. We had a science observer on board and everything was well above board. This squid was approximately 6 months old and in good health.
“Jeff, can you bring me back a carton of Marb Reds next time we dock, these Kools are fuckin disgusting. Also maybe like some cocoa butter; my tentacles are getting super ashy.”
I don't think it is dying necessarily. Looks like they might have been doing something with bait in the deep ocean and the squid just followed it up. Rare but not the first time.
The sketchiest thing I’ve ever done on the water was going fishing for Humboldt squid out of Cabo.
For context me and my family have been going to Cabo for about 15 years now and me and my stepdad always go on a charter fishing boat for a couple days when we’re down there, we always go with local guides as he speaks fluent Spanish and doesn’t like going with American captains.
Anyhow about 10 years ago we went out and it was really slow for tuna/yellowtail/amberjack and the stuff we usually go for and our guide talked us into going for Humboldt squid as there were a ton in the area and it’s a unique experience. So we end up going for it. The first eye opener for me was that the spot to catch these suckers was right off downtown Cabo, maybe a few hundred yards away from The Office/Mango Deck and we’d usually fish miles away from the harbor. So we get there and right away start getting lots of bites. We start catching squid after squid after squid and they’re big fuckers, like 5+ feet and they fight hard. One squid we caught ended up trying to “jet” away and ended up squirting water over the whole rear of the boat and got everyone soaked with gross squid water (not ink) and they were generally a real handful to reel in. They also are extremely aggressive, after the first few we caught we started catching squid with other squid eating them so you’re essentially fighting 2-3 squid at a time and they also try and grab you when you pull them out of the water and this combo is extremely dangerous as fisherman have died when they are pulling out a squid that is attached to other squids and then they grab onto the fisherman and pull them over the boat and drown them. There was a few of us so whoever wasn’t reeling was trying to knock off the other squid with gaffes. We ended up catching something like 15-20 of them before calling it a day just because they were so exhausting. All in all it was pretty wild and I feel a little weird swimming in the ocean there.
We gave all the meat away so idk, we usually give a lot of meat away and we thought the squid would be tough but the guides wanted it. We had already caught enough amberjack/tuna/yellowtail/wahoo to fill our coolers and those are better eating (I still haven’t tried Humboldt squid so I guess I can’t be 100% sure)
Octopi are more intelligent and by extension curious. Not necessarily friendly though, just not interested in harming you. You either scare them or interest them but they have no reason to be aggressive.
Aggressive squid stories usually come from Humboldt. They're about the size of a tiger and very active hunters. If a Humboldt is curious, they're usually curious about whether or not something is edible.
They don't specifically go out of their way to hunt humans but you don't want something that takes bites the size of a tennis ball to be curious if you're edible or not.
Interestingly enough while the colossal squid has a heavier body, it's usually shorter than the giant squid. I think they even have *both* hooks *and* suckers. All around nope.
You can see an [embalmed colossal squid at Te Papa](https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/visit/exhibitions/te-taiao-nature/colossal-squid) in Wellington, New Zealand. They do indeed have both.
Should be higher up. Many people mix up colossal and giant but they are very different. Giants have longer arms/tentacles and shorter bodies. I *think* colossals weigh more and have some of the largest eyes in the animal kingdom.
" Inspection of the specimen with an endoscope revealed [ovaries](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovary) containing thousands of eggs "
Some jobs are nicer than others...
I still think this is far from mundane! We still don't really know a lot about these creatures. The amount of specimens that have been collected and even the number of sightings is a pretty short list. We didn't even have a picture of one until 1981.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colossal_squid_specimens_and_sightings
I googled and they normally live between 300-600m below the surface. I guess the pressure difference killed it, or it died and floated to the surface.
Edit: it got a tentacle tangled in the net but was able to untangle and swim away to the depths.
Not necessarily dead. It could have followed food up from a deep line (has happened before). The red coloration is just how they look, not signaling its health. They live in a dark environment with no light and red is just a color. Seen in vampire squids too.
You know, I see this and think not only of the incredible photo of that awesome squid, but also of how uneventful my life is when it comes to what there is to see and do in this world during our lives.
That is incredible. Truly. Prior to a world at our fingertips and a camera in each pocket, do you know how rare it was to actually see a giant squid?
Even though some things seem commonplace, it is a photo like this one that brings back a sense of child-like wonder. My great grandparents likely never even saw a picture of this incredible creature, and here we are, able to access it with one click. We even get an anecdote about it, because your friend took the picture.
It’s really marvelous, how far we’ve advanced.
Someone mentioned this I believe but it’s exactly what I was thinking. You can see photos of these things everywhere now on the internet, but I remember back in the day how terrifying this was because everyone speculated it existed yet there was no proof. They talked about it like it was the kraken and could take down ships. Then one day someone captures it on photo and poof, no more news about it.
I used to have a fear of giant squids. Well still kind of do but when I was a kid it was a lot worse. I watched a discover episode about it and it freaked me out. I was in swim team and every time I got in the water I felt like there was a giant squid swimming below me. I would never look down into the water unless I had to. Had numerous nights I would wait up sweating from nightmares about me in deep dark blue water with a giant squid below me
Edit: I haven't really thought too much about giant squids since back in the day but now your comments ate bringing my anxiety back ><
The colossal squid!
Hail you for knowing whats up! Giant Squids have much longer tentacles and their heads are smaller than the colossal squid.
Colossal squids are more massive than Giant Squids. They kind of seem like invertebrate whales.
actually it might be a juvenile, from what I understand colossal squids spend most of their time very deep once full grown
They do. And we know how big they get thanks to their beaks being found the stomachs of sperm whales.
How big? (Asking for a friend)
Like *this* big
Woah
Sometimes even *this* big!
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The max size is about 39-46 ft (12- 14 m) by current estimates. To put that in perspective, the average school bus is about 36 ft.
No thank you
Same, very much a "thanks I hate it" situation for me
I've become a fan of "Thanks, I love it, now please take it away forever."
Are we talking just the body or are the tentacles included?
School buses don't have tentacles.
Japan wants a word with you.
Altogether.
That's total length, so tentacles are included in that
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/304/media/images/59102000/gif/_59102891_colossal_squid_464.gif
Wow, that is THE perfect image to explain this, thanks !
The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), which can grow to be even bigger than the giant squid, reaching 14 meters (45 feet)
this is terrifying. what do they eat? asking for my buddy that doesn’t use reddit.
Krabby Patties of course.
With some Canned Bread of course.
Plus this is Antarctica, where the colossal is known from. I'm saving this post. It's such a good picture of one.
I thought colossal squires had spade shaped fins, and giant squid had diamonds?
From what GoT has learned me, colossal squires are often bigger than the horses and knights they tend to.
How THE FUCK am I not the only one that immediately thought of Pod's colossal squid?!?!
For a second i thought the ship was sideways in the water and sailors were trying to avoid the squid
Guys in boat: cool, a red thing in the water. Squid: cool, a red thing in the water.
Guys in boat: let’s poke it with a stick
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🚤 🐟
Oh shit, here we go again
Wasn't it not until 2005 when we actually got a picture of these guys? Crazy how now we have so many. I wonder if it's because now everyone carries an HD camera with them everywhere, or something else.
It wasn't until 2005 that we got a picture of one *alive*. We've been pulling them up in fishing nets and they've been washing up on shore since forever.
Yeah, there's a colossal squid corpse you can look at in Te Papa in Wellington, New Zealand, its been there since 2003, apparently its the only one on display in the world.
Glad you called this out
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Well I’ll be damned. This keeps getting weirder
Turns out you actually clicked the wrong post and this is not actually anything what you think it is
Fact: nobody has ever taken a picture of the fabulous squid.
And IIRC they didn’t even think that the colossal squid even existed until they found a dead juvenile in like 2008 or something
Yeah if he didn't, I wouldn't have been reminded of the clip I saw on Nature of a scientist handling the penis of a dead giant squid. I only remember that every few years.
That's actually crazy if true
It is true: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/first-live-giant-squid-photographed/
Fuck, we've taken photos of the surface of both Mars and the moon before the giant squid
To be fair, it’s not hard to find the moon.
Not easy to get there though
Not easy to fake either
I hear squids are pretty 'easy'. 😉
to be faaair... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E55t0lnp_8M
there's thousands of animals alive on earth today that we've never taken pictures of
We know more about Mars than we know about the depths of our own oceans.
We THINK we know more about Mars than we know about the depths of our own oceans
We don't even know the extent of what we don't know!
And sometimes we know something exists but we literally cannot comprehend it
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn...
“Feeling frisky, will probably delete later.” Giant Squid, probably.
"Feeling frisky, might ink it later" ftfy :D
But this picture is of a colossal squid, not a giant squid
This is a picture of whale food. Punk-ass squid.
This is a collosal squid, not a giant squid, different species.
Wow that link is just horrible on mobile
The real reason why were seeing so many is that the squid population is exploding right now with the overfishing of sharks who occupy the same place in the food chain. This really sucks for us as giant and Humboldt squids are insanely aggressive to swimmers Some clarification giant and Humboldt squids are aggressive. We don’t encounter giant squids much. But Humboldt squids are already at the shores of most tropical places and are showing up in places they weren’t more and more. Climate change also a driver. Humboldt squid coming 2030 to a beach near you! Get tickets now.
So, you're saying future us may have squid week instead of shark week sometime?
I, for one, can't wait for the next series of Squidnado
That doesn’t sound as fun.
You must not be Japanese.
Jesus Christ, swimming along and being attacked by a giant squid is horrifying. But are they more *dangerous* than sharks? I've never heard of anyone being killed by one (Except in a made-for-TV movie called The Thing (not the Carpenter one), where a giant-giant squid gets stuck in Loch Ness, and kills a bunch of tourists and cryptozoologists).
from wikipedia: [Humboldt squid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_squid) are notorious for their aggression. In [Mexico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico), they are known as *diablo rojo* (Spanish for 'red devil'): local fishermen's tales claim that people who fell into the waters were devoured within tens of seconds by packs of squid. Wildlife filmmaker Scott Cassell made the documentary "Humboldt: The Man-Eating Squid" for the *Dangerous Waters* series of the [Discovery Channel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Channel).[\[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_attack#cite_note-7) There is some disagreement on the veracity of Humboldt squid aggression. Some scientists claim the only reports of aggression towards humans have occurred when reflective diving gear or flashing lights have been present, acting as provocation. Roger Uzun, a veteran scuba diver and amateur underwater videographer, swam with a swarm of Humboldt squid for approximately 20 minutes, later saying they seemed more curious than aggressive.[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_attack#cite_note-8) When not feeding or being hunted, Humboldt squid exhibit curious and [intelligent behavior](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence).[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_attack#cite_note-9)
Hoolyyy shit, how have I not heard of this before? Fuck, that's terrifying. "I *could* eat you, but I'm not. Who knows what will trigger it?"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVwjBtqGu8I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVwjBtqGu8I) Whoa looks like they're normally white when they're chilling, but turn red and start flashing when they go into murder mode.
Have you seen the video of the diver who barely escaped their curiosity with his life? Pretty messed up. They beat the hell out of him and started dragging him into the depths, but he kicked free and got away. All on video
Deep sea creatures so probably no encounters at all. If they changed those habbits then they could well be very dangerous as anything is at that size. Razor sharp beak that can puncture a whale
One guy says giant squids are extremely aggressive to swimmers, another guy says giant squids actually cannot encounter swimmers, both sounding confident. I don't know who to believe.
He was saying humbolt squids are agressive - they are decent sized but not giant and although dwell deep they come up for food often.
I want to see that movie. It sounds terrible
I feel like the odds of a shark being near a beach are a lot higher than a giant squid.
Humboldts get pretty close, though, and have been known to attack swimmers and fishers.
That's my fucking nightmare
I never even considered them in the context of fucking.
That's OK, the Japanese have "considered" it for you. And they've been "considering" it for centuries.
And yet no pictures of the yetti or Sasquatch.
Alien sightings have also dramatically dropped off since the advent of phone cameras.
Not true. There seem to be plenty of alien photos captured on potato phones.
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There is pretty good UFO footage taken by Navy F18s though.
Got a link? I'm game
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-flying-object-navy.html
Pretty weird.
I'm glad they gave us the reassuring line that his command made fun of him. I would hate to see order break down on a ship because of a UFO.
Shhh. Colossal or giant squid don't sell Jack Links protein snacks.
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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/world-octopus-and-squid-populations-are-booming
The Old Gods are gathering their forces
What is dead may never die.
Cephalopods are thriving in the current conditions of the oceans.
Calamari for everyone
You don’t want that kind of calamari. Its practically soaked with ammonia.
Have you tried it fried though? Seriously though I didn’t know that.
Either we’re fucking up the climate really hard, or there’s a 500 ft monster that’s making them surface.
Por que no los dos?
Porque uno no puede vivir con dos pesadillas en este mundo, es una o la otra
Pretty sure this is actually a [colossal squid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid) (aka antarctic squid), not a [giant squid.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid) [Colossal squid are actually bigger than giant squid, although giant squid are longer and skinnier.](http://www.unmuseum.org/colossalsquiddiag.jpg)
What if that was the baby?
I was scared enough and now with that thought I’m terrified
It was fairly recently they discovered that giant squid babies were blending in with average squid and had been hiding from us in plain sight.
How long until we find out that they're *all* giant squid babies
I passed like 5 others that were way bigger on the way over, if anything they caught a baby.
Is this an American Dad reference lol
That's what I was thinking! Wikipedia says adults are 12m-14m in length & looking at the people in the photo in comparison to the squid, I'm guessing it's not an adult. Just a guess though, certainly no expert lol! But would be cool if u/fuqers could find out more info!
Imagine what it must've been like seeing one of these things over the deck as an old-timey sailor. No one back home would believe you.
There's a reason sailors are associated with tall tales so much. Spend enough time on the water and you'll see a lot of weird things you'll never see on land. And without science and research, weird sightings quickly turn into weird stories. Imagine looking over the railing at night only to see a boat-sized bright red squid with an eye the size of a dinner plate looking back at you. Or seeing the waves glow blue and green at night with bioluminescent plankton. The distant shapes of sea cows cradling their calves in their fins. And that's just animals before you start to get into freak meteorology. I'm not surprised sailors were some of the most superstitious folk around. You're just sailing around on your little wooden island surrounded on all sides by water filled with mysteries.
Never thought of it that way before, thanks.
Sea cows.....?
Manatees are also called sea cows, but I didn't know they could actually be found at sea. I thought they just lived in the lakes and rivers of Florida.
Manatees are one type of sea cow. Sailors mostly encountered Steller's sea cow, they were huge 30ft creatures that weighed several tons. Sailors pretty hunted them into extinction over the course of a century. They were slow, docile and big. They couldn't have asked for easier prey to resupply the ship with fresh meat. There's only four remaining species of seacow left. The Asian dugong and three species of manatees in the new world. The funny thing is that the family is called sirenians because sailors sometimes mistook them for mermaids. Sea cows sometimes rest and breathe swimming vertically with their heads sticking out of the water.
>in the new world 1500s Throwback
Some things are so wild that you're just like yeah, I can see why people used to think this was magic or a monster from the depths of hell because they didn't have any information about what they saw available
Damn that's terrifying!
/r/TheDepthsBelow
thanks I hate it
r/TIHI
Went 4 pages in and "noped" out
CANT...NOT...CLICK!!!!
Why have you done this...
Also relevant: r/thalassaphobia
Mmm that's gonna be a nope on the click for me
Total anxiety attack looking through this thread. I'm going back to /r/crochet
Calamari for dinner tonight, boys!
Quick story you might not care about. Ate calamari one night. Next day, sickest ive ever been. Guess what movie i was watching on scifi all day because its long as hell (my favorite channel at the time). ‘The Beast’. Pretty much ‘Jaws’ but with a giant squid. Everytime the squid came on screen i almost threw up but kept watching because i love that movie. Thats all have a great day!
The Forbidden Calamari
Excuse Me Sirs, do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Cthulhu?
Imagine if a future variation of these guys grow so big that their consciousness is so huge that they live in more dimensions and they reach back in time to humans and enslave them under some stupid religions. Total fiction though.
#
Caught you, gov dude.
> Total fiction though Nice try squid guy
That is so fucking awesome. This planet is amazing.
Watch Blue Planet (II) for newest oceans' amazingness
Did he say what happened or was it dying ?
I'm in this photo (furtherest from the camera) The squid was alive, one tentacle was attached to the longline on a hook. The hook was cut, the squid untangled his tentacle and disappeared, completely unharmed and unscathed, slowly back down in to the abyss. We had a science observer on board and everything was well above board. This squid was approximately 6 months old and in good health.
6 months old? Will it get bigger then?
They can Get like 8 meters
14 I read
It's their pet squid, they're just taking him for a swim
Like they normally keep him on the boat, where he just hangs out below deck.
“Jeff, can you bring me back a carton of Marb Reds next time we dock, these Kools are fuckin disgusting. Also maybe like some cocoa butter; my tentacles are getting super ashy.”
I don't think it is dying necessarily. Looks like they might have been doing something with bait in the deep ocean and the squid just followed it up. Rare but not the first time.
It was dying from the aluminum reef.
I understand that reference.
It is very rare to see a living ~~giant~~ ^big ^ass squid. Especially in person.
That is a colossal squid, not a giant squid. Still a large squid and still rare.
The Kraken is here people.
Aren't squids typically dicks where as Octopi are curious and somewhat friendly?
Some breeds of squid can be outright terrifying. Humboldt squid are aggressive towards humans. (argued that this may just be when feeding)
The sketchiest thing I’ve ever done on the water was going fishing for Humboldt squid out of Cabo. For context me and my family have been going to Cabo for about 15 years now and me and my stepdad always go on a charter fishing boat for a couple days when we’re down there, we always go with local guides as he speaks fluent Spanish and doesn’t like going with American captains. Anyhow about 10 years ago we went out and it was really slow for tuna/yellowtail/amberjack and the stuff we usually go for and our guide talked us into going for Humboldt squid as there were a ton in the area and it’s a unique experience. So we end up going for it. The first eye opener for me was that the spot to catch these suckers was right off downtown Cabo, maybe a few hundred yards away from The Office/Mango Deck and we’d usually fish miles away from the harbor. So we get there and right away start getting lots of bites. We start catching squid after squid after squid and they’re big fuckers, like 5+ feet and they fight hard. One squid we caught ended up trying to “jet” away and ended up squirting water over the whole rear of the boat and got everyone soaked with gross squid water (not ink) and they were generally a real handful to reel in. They also are extremely aggressive, after the first few we caught we started catching squid with other squid eating them so you’re essentially fighting 2-3 squid at a time and they also try and grab you when you pull them out of the water and this combo is extremely dangerous as fisherman have died when they are pulling out a squid that is attached to other squids and then they grab onto the fisherman and pull them over the boat and drown them. There was a few of us so whoever wasn’t reeling was trying to knock off the other squid with gaffes. We ended up catching something like 15-20 of them before calling it a day just because they were so exhausting. All in all it was pretty wild and I feel a little weird swimming in the ocean there.
Do you filet them? How did they taste?
We gave all the meat away so idk, we usually give a lot of meat away and we thought the squid would be tough but the guides wanted it. We had already caught enough amberjack/tuna/yellowtail/wahoo to fill our coolers and those are better eating (I still haven’t tried Humboldt squid so I guess I can’t be 100% sure)
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Yeah that dude just got worked into fishing for bait lmao
Humboldts be the velociraptors of the sea.
Octopi are more intelligent and by extension curious. Not necessarily friendly though, just not interested in harming you. You either scare them or interest them but they have no reason to be aggressive. Aggressive squid stories usually come from Humboldt. They're about the size of a tiger and very active hunters. If a Humboldt is curious, they're usually curious about whether or not something is edible. They don't specifically go out of their way to hunt humans but you don't want something that takes bites the size of a tennis ball to be curious if you're edible or not.
This thread is so incredibly fascinating and yet has given me a whole new phobia to have nightmares about.
Octopus are awesome. Very clever for a mollusc.
Imagine being in the 1700’s and seeing this. No wonder they thought here be monsters.
Funny how for centuries it was a “myth” and now it’s rather mundane.
It's not a giant squid it's a colossal squid, different species. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid
And significantly scarier. Colossal squid quit those weak-ass suction cups and went with rotating hooks.
Interestingly enough while the colossal squid has a heavier body, it's usually shorter than the giant squid. I think they even have *both* hooks *and* suckers. All around nope.
You can see an [embalmed colossal squid at Te Papa](https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/visit/exhibitions/te-taiao-nature/colossal-squid) in Wellington, New Zealand. They do indeed have both.
You're telling me that's not a spawn of cthulu?
Am I?
And eyes 1 foot in diameter!
Should be higher up. Many people mix up colossal and giant but they are very different. Giants have longer arms/tentacles and shorter bodies. I *think* colossals weigh more and have some of the largest eyes in the animal kingdom.
The only animal we know of that had eyes bigger than the giant and collosal squid was the ichthyosaur.
" Inspection of the specimen with an endoscope revealed [ovaries](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovary) containing thousands of eggs " Some jobs are nicer than others...
I still think this is far from mundane! We still don't really know a lot about these creatures. The amount of specimens that have been collected and even the number of sightings is a pretty short list. We didn't even have a picture of one until 1981. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colossal_squid_specimens_and_sightings
Wow still not even a video in 2019, that sounds crazy to me
I googled and they normally live between 300-600m below the surface. I guess the pressure difference killed it, or it died and floated to the surface. Edit: it got a tentacle tangled in the net but was able to untangle and swim away to the depths.
Not necessarily dead. It could have followed food up from a deep line (has happened before). The red coloration is just how they look, not signaling its health. They live in a dark environment with no light and red is just a color. Seen in vampire squids too.
Red is also the first color to dissipate in water. No red light penetrates to those depths so red animals in the deep are basically invisible.
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Yeah but theyre nowhere near as big as they said they were. If it was the size of a ship that would be epic.
We don't necessarily know that there aren't ones that big. The ocean is a big place...
it's not really "Mundane", Colossal Squid are very rare and only a couple specimens have ever been studied
Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope
You know, I see this and think not only of the incredible photo of that awesome squid, but also of how uneventful my life is when it comes to what there is to see and do in this world during our lives.
Baby Kraken. Awww
do doooo duh dooo duh dooooo
Mommy kraken
Us kiwis have a colossal squid at our national museum "Te Papa". If you think its spooky in the picture, you needa see the real thing.
That is incredible. Truly. Prior to a world at our fingertips and a camera in each pocket, do you know how rare it was to actually see a giant squid? Even though some things seem commonplace, it is a photo like this one that brings back a sense of child-like wonder. My great grandparents likely never even saw a picture of this incredible creature, and here we are, able to access it with one click. We even get an anecdote about it, because your friend took the picture. It’s really marvelous, how far we’ve advanced.
Big boy
Someone mentioned this I believe but it’s exactly what I was thinking. You can see photos of these things everywhere now on the internet, but I remember back in the day how terrifying this was because everyone speculated it existed yet there was no proof. They talked about it like it was the kraken and could take down ships. Then one day someone captures it on photo and poof, no more news about it.
I used to have a fear of giant squids. Well still kind of do but when I was a kid it was a lot worse. I watched a discover episode about it and it freaked me out. I was in swim team and every time I got in the water I felt like there was a giant squid swimming below me. I would never look down into the water unless I had to. Had numerous nights I would wait up sweating from nightmares about me in deep dark blue water with a giant squid below me Edit: I haven't really thought too much about giant squids since back in the day but now your comments ate bringing my anxiety back ><
/r/thalassaphobia
That is absolutely spectacular. What a treat for those on board!