i would personally not go diving to see a giant squid but if you would or did, please say something about it here!

I'm with you sitting on the shore. I'll look for where I first found the subject and post my results. Hey, does this include some Neanderthal-types I happpen to have hanging around?

*laugh* yup!!

UNDERWATER ROBOT HELPS SCIENTISTS SEARCH FOR GIANT SQUID 04-29-97 Giant squid hunters from MIT Sea Grant's Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Laboratory recently returned from a month-long mission to search for the elusive animal in the depths of Kaikoura Canyon, off the coast of New Zealand. Although they came back empty-handed in regard to squid, the crew was happy with the performance of their research vehicle, the Odyssey IIB, which was outfitted for the mission with a National Geographic video camera designed for capturing deep sea animals on film. "The vehicle did what is was supposed to do," said James Bellingham, MIT Sea Grant AUV Laboratory's Principal Research Engineer. "We learned a lot about how to run biological experiments and we learned a lot about how to search for squid. Our primary mission was to characterize the ecology and underwater habitat of Kaikoura Canyon. We knew the odds weren't great for seeing squid." The Odyssey was chosen for the mission because of its small size, its ease in working in deep water systems, and the relative economy of its operation in comparison to other deep-rated systems, Bellingham said. The mission was one in a planned series led by Clyde Roper, a squid expert at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History. Next month, the crew begins field work to prepare for the Odyssey's deployment in the Labrador Sea in early 1998. The team will test the feasibility of docking the AUV to a mooring in the open ocean which would make it capable of providing an unmanned presence in remote regions of the world. CONTACT: Andrea Cohen, MIT Sea Grant Communications, (O) 617-253-3461; E-Mail: alcohen@mit.edu http://www.seagrantnews.org/news/tips/tip_apr97.html#squid

For your *Sightings* file (I'm still looking for the recent article about the squid): http://users.ntplx.net/~astalvey/touchinghearts/science.htm#The Stronsay Beast

FOUND IT!!! http://www.nature.com/nsu/011227/011227-3.html From a Very reliable science source.

these are sitings of living creatures, that one site is bringing out the dead. but the mammoth article was very interesting. imagine a mastadon running around in the 1800's! wouldn't that make you wonder about other dinosaurs? the squid article was good too. very interesting!

I'm really skeptical (too much of a scientist?) to take some of these sightings with much credibility! However, I try to keep an open mind. Closed minds learn nothing! yes, I know...

ooooooooo, i LOVE them!!!!!! *HUGS*

Me too. You'sd be amazed how John and I managed to do three of them, then insert the letters (his genius, my insertion in the config files.) Get well soon, John... I miss you terribly... *hugs* (He'll never see this!) I did not know where to put the squid trivia, so here it goes! HOW DOES A GIANT SQUID EAT? A giant squid has two long tentacles that make up much of the total length of the animal. Each tentacle terminates with a flattened club that has several hundred suckers on one side. The tentacles grab prey and transfer it to the eight arms where the squid�s muscular, beak-like mouth bites out chunks to swallow. The food then travels down the esophagus, which runs through the squid�s brain. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF AMERICANS BELIEVE THAT NASA IS KEEPING SECRETS ABOUT ALIEN LIFE? 36 percent of Americans. HOW OLD IS THE SPECIES OF FISH KNOWN AS THE COLELACANTH? This ancient creature existed 350 million years ago. Scien- tists had believed that the fish became extinct 60 million years ago, until a living specimen was caught in the Indian Ocean of Southern Afica in 1938. HOW LARGE WAS THE LARGEST SQUID EVER CAUGHT? The largest giant squid ever measured was discovered at Timble Tickle Bay, Newfoundland, on November 2, 1878. Three fisherman were working not far off shore when they noticed a mass float- ing on the ocean they took to be wreckage. They investigated and found a giant squid had run aground. Using their anchor as a grappling hook they snagged the still-living body and made it fast to a tree. When the tide went out the creature was left high and dry. When the animal died, the fishermen measured it and then chopped it up for dog meat. The body of the squid was twenty feet from tail to beak. The longer tentacles measured thirty five feet and were tipped with four inch suckers. It weighed two tons.

that just adds more fuel to the interest in finding one! 4-inch suckers? that sounds like the size of those used to transport glass window panes! imagine that clamping onto you, no, don't!! i saw something about big squid on discovery, they have beaks! it was so gross to look at but interesting too.

(or maybe it was an octopus?)

got a website for giant squid: http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/squid.html

Cuttlefish have cuttlebones. All cephalopods have beaks. That's the way they chew! I can put my fossil ammonites there, too!!! Great links, Wolfie!

we're going to continue the discussion on giant squids in the new squid topic of springark...... glad you liked the links!

I think this belongs in here Wolfie. Snowy owl makes stop in Indianapolis (http://www.indystar.com/article.php?snowy11.html) Rare Arctic birds usually don't venture this far south; it may have been searching for extra sources of food. By George McLaren george.mclaren@indystar.com January 11, 2002 A rare snowy owl -- like an escapee from Hogwarts -- showed up Thursday in the parking lot of an industrial company Downtown. "It was so beautiful you just had to love that. It was such a beautiful sight. It was awesome," said Joan Mason, who works in the employment office of the Diamond Chain Co., 402 Kentucky Ave. While employees gawked at the strikingly white owl, Mason grabbed a camera and snapped a few photos. Snowy owls, which are about 2 feet tall and have yellow eyes, spend summers in the Arctic. Some stay there year-round and others migrate south to Canada or the northern Midwest. "They are reported in Indiana virtually every winter, but the only reliable places would be right along the lakeshore from Michigan City to the west, all the way to the Gary area," said John B. Dunning Jr., a Purdue University professor and bird book author. The owls are seldom seen elsewhere around the state. But when the population of lemmings -- the owl's main prey species -- crashes, the predators head south to find o her food sources. Several snowy owls have been seen in Indiana, including at least four in the area of Tippecanoe, White and Boone counties, Dunning said. One owl hunted for three weeks along U.S. 52 south of Lafayette before being struck and killed by a car a few weeks ago. Dunning said the birds, being from the Far North, lack the normal wariness of urban dangers such as traffic. "They are much more trusting and naive about things like cars than a great horned owl would be," he said. Dunning said there was no way to predict what the owl might do next. Some recent sightings have been for a day or two, and other snowy owls have stayed put for weeks. The owl already has learned one hazard of living in the heart of the city -- but it wasn't danger from humans. The two peregrine falcons that nest Downtown discovered the intruder on their territory. First one, then the other, showed up to harass the owl. "It was diving at it and screeching at it," said Rachel Morris, another Diamond Chain office employee. "The alcon would go straight up and right back down on it. Finally, the owl flew away." It was last seen heading north toward Hogwarts, er, IUPUI.

I'd love to see a snowy owl. I like owls of any sort, actually. Hi Maggie! *Hugs*

thanks maggie, i like owls too. they're creepy to sneak up on though (yeah, they know we're there and allow us to look at them).

I hear them a lot in woods near us, but rarely see them. Hi everyone .. trying to get my life back together ... but I am around ...

glad to hear it!

in the science file section of the L.A. Times: "Scientists have identified what they believe is the largest octopus ever seen, a 13-foot-long, 165-pound giant hauled from the depths near New Zealand's Chatham Islands. The specimen, caught in a trawler's net, was badly damaged, but it was clearly a massive animal, said National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research marine biologist Steve O'Shea. He had provisionally identified the specimen, caught at a depth of more than 3000 feet, as Haliphron atlanticus, a bright red, jelly-like species of octopus not previously found in the South Pacific."

I didn't know they fished at such great depths. Wonder if this needs to be curtailed or regulated if these species are being damaged.

i wanna know how'd they know he was caught that deep or that he was caught at all until they brought the net in.

caught at a depth of more than 3000 feet, what are they fishing for that deep?

really!! am gonna go on the web and see if they have any updates to this "fish tale" *grin*

here's a link to the story on reuters: http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=search&StoryID=756492

it reconfirms the 3000 foot depth (unless they did their math wrong)