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Today is a great day for Giant Squid lovers. These shots were actually taken almost a year ago, but have been released today to coincide with the publication of a report in the journal Proceedings B of the Royal Society. Unfortunately the article doesn’t seem to be online yet, but Squidblog will report back as soon as it is available!

Scientists capture giant squid on camera

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have taken the first photographs of one of the most mysterious creatures in the deep ocean — the giant squid.

Until now the only information about the behaviour of the creatures which measure up to 18 metres (59 feet) in length has been based on dead or dying squid washed up on shore or captured in commercial fishing nets.

But Tsunemi Kubodera, of the National Science Museum, and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, both in Tokyo have captured the first images of Architeuthis attacking bait 900 metres (yards) below the surface in the cold, dark waters of the North Pacific.

“We show the first wild images of a giant squid in its natural environment,” they said in a report on Wednesday in the journal Proceedings B of the Royal Society. …

There is, of course, a Tonmo discussion on this, as well as reports all over the Web: National Geographic, Sydney Morning Herald, MSNBC, New York Times , Yahoo News, Arab Times, News24, and the ‘other’ Squidblog.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2005 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Squid Happenings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.