Our latest Architeuthis

[Steve O'Shea]

.... and with a little tricky repositioning, got it in the tray and safely transported to work. It will defrost in the back of the van tonight .... and tomorrow .... and .....

 

[DWhatley]

Just don't leave the remains near an apartment air conditioning intake

 

[OB]

Most of the inhabitants suffered permanent loss of smell following the "Mola mola incident", anyway, so I would say "beyond concern", now

 

[Steve O'Shea]

It smells 'fine'. It's a bit damaged, but I'll know more today. (It was still rather frozen yesterday, and it is obvious that its digestive gland ruptured when they picked it up off the beach and transported; there's a possibility that the head is also separated from the mantle.)

Here are just afew shots, a blow-by-blow account of what's involved getting a slippery, smelly mass from the back of the wagon into a tank in cramped quarters (there are two other fixing tanks to the immediate left of this squid .... both full) in a carpark with a few onlookers.

Formalin and cleaning goes on today.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Tiz heavy and big, though the images don't really show this (we've been spoilt with Colossal).

 

[Steve O'Shea]

And finally, and a clean up .... (smelly!)

 

[OB]

I remember that smell...

 

[Steve O'Shea]

You want to smell the office, truck and two carparks .....

 

[OB]

Rather not.... The skin's off the mantle, as always, abrasion? Sea sun and sand? Or is that still a patch, all countershade and such?

Edit: backside of head, I see it now... Big eyes too.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

It was in a really bad way, two pieces, and the viscera was rotten. We disracded the mantle and kept thehead, although I'm inclined to lose the head at some point also (it just seemed like such a terrible waste).

The specimen was beach cast (ex trawler), the beaks had been removed .... a crying shame. Better luck with the next one. (That's Rebecca, who's come all the way from Chicago in the US of A to play just with squid with us for a few years ... her first Architeuthis.)

 

[Infusoria]

Sunfish AUT 2006

Speaking of the sunfish, I can't remember if I posted any of the pics... Here's a few...

Matt

 

[Infusoria]

Matt's GS pics

Hi,

Here are some I took today... So we have a couple of close-ups, then one of the back of the truck post squid and pre-cleaning, and finally one really nice pic of Rebecca and Clara who were helping Steve out today.

Matt

 

[Steve O'Shea]

....... three hours of waterblasting later .....

 

[DWhatley]

Matt,
I love the "fishing" shot.

Steve had posted some of cleaning the sunfish but not a shot that showed the size of the mess

 

[OB]

What ever became of the latex mould.....

Anyway, were the eyes on this Architeuthis measured, by any chance? Looks like not, but just curious.