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Hello

I

Infusoria

Vampyroteuthis
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Jun 3, 2004
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Hi everyone,

I'm Matt Jones, I'm a PhD student at AUT studying the diet of Orange Roughy around NZ (before there aren't any - hopefully).

I'm to confess to not knowing too much about cephalopods. Although I have been going down to Kelly Tarlton's to watch Dr Steve's squid which has been really cool.

Cheers
Matt
 
:D Hi, Matt! Hope you're findin' some good stuff on this site about cephalopods...they're absolutely fascinating creatures. Your research on the orange roughy is interesting...I'm glad that somebody's studying them before they really do face extinction :) Way cool!

Welcome to Tonmo, and prepare to be amazed at those *craaaaaaaaaaaazy* cephalopods!!! :D

~ Claudia, United States
 
Thanks for the nice welcome,

As for what Orange Roughy eat. What we know so far is that OR eat a variety of benthopelagic prey. Without going into species it's split roughly into thirds between squid, fish and natant decapods. Sorry to be so vague but I'm only starting out and I'm still doing THE BIG literature search at the moment.

When I've had a chance to get some and see for myself I'll let everyone know.

Ok, so much for the air of mystery:

So I re-post, we got to see some amazing footage yesterday. The first part was preported to be of Architeuthis but wasn't.

I'm not sure where it was (no, really I don't know), the only info being the depth 886-950m, somewhere off NZ. There was an undersea cable involved which was the point of the ROV being there. Anyway we're watching this cable roll by, and there's lot's of interesting (to me at least) invertebrate benthic life rolling past. Then this whopping great squid bashes into the ROV and swims away. The ROV follows it for a few minutes before either losing it or getting back to work (those things are expensive to run ...and the meter is running). It was this big brick red thing (Says Matt the Cephalopod taxonomy expert - My Molluscs are slow and have shells).

The Second vid, was of a Marlin caught NW of NZ at night. It had been hooked 45 min previously. When they brought it on board you got to see: tail, spine, head. Apparently it had been taken by a squid which had basically filleted it. It wasn't a small fish either, being estimated at 120Kg and about 4-6' in length. There was a big bite mark on the head which was roughly oval and deep, which implies it wasn't a shark. Never seen the like... makes you REALLY REALLY NOT want to be in the water offshore at night.

:)

Incidently, how many of you have read John Wyndham's "The Kraken Wakes'?
 
:shock:
Ummmmmm..........

:welcome: there Matt. Terribly secret squirrel stuff you're spilling there online. :heee:

The squid footage was fab; supposed to be Architeuthis, but sadly it wasn't; it was an ommastrephid (arrow squid); fab all the same!!! The filleted marlin - blew us away - but that's part of a wee fishing doco that airs in October (NZ TV) ... so canna spill da beans on that one.

Looks like we'll receiving 50+ marlin/swordfish stomachs/year from this day forth; they eat fast-moving surface-dwelling squid (< 150m depth); we're expecting juvenile Architeuthis in them one of these days (to receive so many marlin stomachs is almost without precedent; great thesis topic developing there for someone; they eat tremendous numbers of squid [almost exclusively] during the summer and winter months).

We're concentrating on fisheries here that work in all depth horizons; Matt, you may well find the elusive Architeuthis juvenile in your roughy stomachs; or it could be at the other end of the depth spectrum, in the shallows. Just tracking that elusive quarry down every way we can.

O
 
.... now Matt has gone and edited his post, so you'll wonder what on Earth it was that I was talking about. :bonk:

Matt, ya gotta go repost now .... (we've been looking at some rather interesting video footage)
 
Steve O'Shea said:
:shock:
Ummmmmm..........

:welcome: there Matt. Terribly secret squirrel stuff you're spilling there online. :heee:
Click to expand...
:lol: Hey, Matt got caught by the Big Man (tm)
Who's in trouble now?!
Those videos were indeed superb... it takes a lot to keep O. ( :notworth: ) quiet for more than 30 sec...

TPOTH
 
:shock: :shock:

I'm really in the firing line today!

Right, I demand lines from you both, 10,000 of them, hand written!

"I shall not be horrid to O"
"I shall not be horrid to O"
"I shall not be horrid to O"
"I shall not be horrid to O"
....
 

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