Giant Squid footage on History Channel

Steve O'Shea

TONMO Supporter
Staff member
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2002
Messages
4,672
Dale, pretty pretty pretty please .... any chance of a high res image of the large squid? Not to worry about the size problem; that's to be expected.
 
Joined
Feb 11, 2006
Messages
62
Here is the problem with the high res photo of the squid, I was hired for the dive mission as a diver, all footage from the cameras became property of History Channel at the end of the Expedition. In fact I have been under orders to stay quiet about this whole thing untill now. I do have shots from my personal camera but they were taken during the mission, at depths reachable by divers on rebreathers.

Here is a shot of the squid that carried the camera down deep for us. I was in the process of recovering the camera when the squid decided to go for the front of the nearest thing. You can see the camera still attached to the squid, the other end of the cable is in my hand. All the footage of the big squid was caught on that small camera.
P1010045-1.jpg
 

OB

Colossal Squid
Staff member
Moderator (Staff)
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
3,108
Hmmmm.... I watched the video over and over, but I'm not quite sure what led you to the latter conclusion. The early squid(s) are(/is) definitely average sized Humboldt, but on the big one at the end I fail to see hooks, making a really large Humboldt less likely. I also fail to see big diamondshaped fins, however, although I sometimes think i can see tips at one stage, halfway lost in the noise.... You're right about scale being impossible to tell, but the flow of arms and speed/momentum of movement do at least suggest something fairly large, perhaps not truly gigantic, and we could even go as far as to calculate size based on amount of lux coming from the crittercam lights and the dimness of the image...
 

Clem

Architeuthis
Registered
Joined
Apr 6, 2003
Messages
1,839
Ob,

Upon studying a decent grab, I no longer see a Diamondback. I see something painful.

:goofysca:
 

Attachments

  • conv_291941.jpg
    conv_291941.jpg
    103.4 KB · Views: 141

OB

Colossal Squid
Staff member
Moderator (Staff)
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
3,108
That's Dosidicus gigas in all it's terrifying reality.... I am seriously making an effort with regards to interpreting dimness as scale indicator, my estimate at arm length for the large mystery squid is around 1 meter, making it sizeable, within the 1,5 to 2 meter ML. It could, however, be (a lot) larger, but I don't think much smaller. I love its number 1 pair, beautifully poised in attack mode. The keels on what I take to be pair 3 are very reminiscent of Dosidicus, but I fail to see hooks, Architeuthis dux has less profound keels, but that would simply be too good, wouldn't it, Clem? :wink:

This counts amongst my favourite shots of Dosidicus in the wild.
 
Top