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The New York Times ran a story yesterday about an example of elusive giant squid, complete with video, having been spotted alive in Toyama Bay off the coast of Japan:
They can be as big as a bus, or even bigger, and yet the elusive giant squid has hardly been spotted swimming alive in the ocean. [...]
The last time a giant squid was captured on video, though less vividly so, was during a scientific expedition in 2012. Photos of the creature in the wild were captured for the first time in 2005 by Japanese researchers, stirring excitement among those who had long sought to glimpse a giant squid in its natural habitat.
"This has been a mystery for a thousand years," Richard Ellis, author of "Monsters of the Sea," said of the photographs at the time. "Nobody knew what they looked like in the wild."
The original CNN story can be found here.
Hopefully, this noble creature is not turned into sashimi.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by n1 on Friday January 01 2016, @01:27PM
I am intrigued by the giant squid and what other life lurks in the oceans.
It's not something i've actively studied, but when stories like this come up it does make me curious about what can be found under the surface. We don't seem to know too much about what goes on down there.
Anyone have recommended reading for casual observers about interesting/unique/rare marine life?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Friday January 01 2016, @03:36PM
The deep sea is far more difficult to explore than space. I heard that when NASA was started up, equivalent funding was provided for deep-sea exploration. NASA is the one that succeeded and kept its funding. Anyone have details?
(Score: 2) by Murdoc on Saturday January 02 2016, @12:37AM
Is that why multiple companies have been having trouble getting into space, but one movie producer was able to send himself on a solo trip to the bottom of the ocean? I grant that oceanic pressures are far greater than the lack of pressure in space, and space doesn't have currents or animals in it, but there's still a lot of other problems; the gravity well being one of the biggest. Then there's radiation, the vast distances, etc.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2016, @08:53PM
Try "The Deep" by Claire Nouvian (University of Chicago Press) - a coffee table book with lots of intriguing deep-sea creatures.