Giant squid could resurface in B.C. waters again
From Events in Vancouver:
Warm Pacific may encourage its migration
Ethan Baron,
The ProvinceJune 30, 2005
Forget War of the Worlds and its sci-fi aliens. There are much scarier creatures right here on Earth, possibly on their way up to B.C. at this very moment. Tom Cruise won’t save you from the killer squid.
Their 10 tentacles, covered with suction cups full of teeth, can reach out three metres, dragging hapless prey toward razor-sharp, parrot-like mouth-beaks.
Underwater photographers who film Humboldt squid wear chain-mail suits.
“They’re 100 per cent pre-dator,” said Jim Cosgrove, natural history manager at the Royal B.C. Museum.
“If you were attacked by a number of them, you could most certainly get injured.”
In Mexico, the Humboldt squid is el diablo rojo, the red devil. Mexico has a thriving fishery that provides meat from the squid to Japan. But every once in a while, a squid fisherman disappears without a trace.
In B.C., the killer squid first showed up last fall, by the thousands, their appearance linked to ocean warming.
Now, with ocean temperatures expected to be at least as warm as last year’s, scientists are waiting to see if the creatures will appear again.
And though beachgoers have little to fear from these predators who rise from the depths to hunt at night, woe betide the boater who goes overboard in darkness.
“That certainly could be a problem if you were somewhere where you were in the water and the squid were around,” Cosgrove said. “It’s a pretty formidable animal.”