Killed by Squid?

[monty]

This is the clip that I shot with my dive team leader Mr. Scott Cassell on a photo shoot for Outside Magazine. On one shot you will see a squid come in from about 25 feet at full speed with tentacles first in a point. He comes straight in and grabs Scotts fin. They are smart, a diver on SCUBA can go in and safely interact, however a fisherman who falls out of his boat at night is in trouble. Our best footage that we have on squid attack is going to be released in a DVD in March. The first showing will be at the www.ncups.org meeting on March the 10th in San Francisco.

Yes I have personaly been grabbed, but not bitten by a Humboldt squid.

See it with your own eyes? Pay attention at 1:18sec.

http://209.242.151.5/seawolves/DancingWithDemons.wmv

That is really cool! If I get a chance to get down to Baja sometime soon, that looks really fun! Of course, I don't see the price on the web site, so maybe I'll have to wait until I make my first million or something (since there's a $500 deposit, I can extrapolate that it's not dirt-cheap, but the web site sure comes across as a very professional operation, so I expect it's a fair price for a great service... )

One question: in the video, it looks like there are clouds of something in the water... I'm assuming that's because the squids are inking, but it looks different from what I've seen before-- it looks like the squid is both grabbing the diver and inking, while I was under the impression that squids' inking was almost always part of an escape behavior, so it seems very weird for a squid to be both grabbing the diver and inking at the same time... it doesn't look like the diver's doing much to stop the squid from leaving if it feels like it... am I interpreting it correctly, or is something else going on?

Thanks for the cool video!

 

[gonetobaja]

What happens is that the squid will come in and grab you. If you just kick or punch back then they let go. If you grab the squid when he grabs you then he gets scared and shoots ink.

"Oh no, this big bubble blowing monster has my leg! I guess its not edible!"

Of course this works on the ones up to 4 or 5 feet. The big ones are a different story. You must remember that these animals are as big as you in the water. They are faster, more agile, and more equipped to do damage. They are not afraid of people in the water. Sometimes when they shoot ink I think they are trying to just deploy a decoy to throw off their prey, then they reverse direction and grab you.

To be honest, Im not really sure about all of the squid behavior. More research needs to be done on them and this is one of our goals.

One thing that I have found is that if you act like prey in the water (dont move or offer any resistance, or panic and swim in a retreat from the animal) then you will get inspected for the food chain. If you act aggressive when they come close it helps to keep them off. They are less likely to think of you as a prey item. This works with Squids, and Sharks.

Of course they are wild animals so for me to predict their behavior is a joke really.

The price of the trip is 2,200$. IT is 5 days and includes all of your transportation, meals, and hotels from Loreto to the dive site. 3 days of diving with the squid. boat costs, tanks and video work.

We take 4 divers at a time and film the whole thing in HD and give you a copy.

We do both cage and armor dives.

GTB
www.seawolvesunltd.com

 

[monty]

Thanks for the info... it does sound like a good deal, considering it's all expenses included, although it's too much to say "sign me up" just now-- I better start saving! And maybe practicing taking an aggressive posture-- I know when facing mean dogs & such I stand tall, stomp my feet, and speak in a loud, firm voice, but it seems like none of that works on SCUBA... I guess turning to face the squid, maintaining eye contact, and making large gestures is the sort of thing that works?

Do they ever get relaxed enough that they will enjoy being petted yet neither be trying to eat you nor run away? I know that sometimes octopuses get to that point, and I saw some documentary on giant cuttlefish that said they have that response sometimes...

Another thing I saw in the video that surprised me was that when the squid goes after the camera directly, it looked like there was some sort of membrane with "mini-arms" around the beak area... I had never seen that sort of anatomical feature on a cephalopod before... most pictures I've seen of squid beaks just have the buccal mass around like a knot of muscle... I wonder if that's a feature I had just never noticed before, or if most squid species don't have it...

 

[WhereMyFishes99]

um i have heard of people in mexico fishing for squid get attacked..nothing fatal but missing fingers and such..

 

[SoulFish]

DancingWithDemons.wmv

http://209.242.151.5/seawolves/DancingWithDemons.wmv

Armor wearing diver with giant squid

 

[chrono_war01]

Nice...that was awesome *starts saving money*