Deep-sea holy grail

In September of 2004 a Japanese team of deep-sea researchers captured footage of a live Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux). The team found the squid in 900m deep water, 16km off the coast of a remote Pacific island of Chichijima (Bonin Islands). It was an 8m long female, wrestling with its dinner (shrimp used as bait). The team not only captured video footage, but also a severed 6m long tentacle, still capable of sucking. Apparently, the squid lost the tentacle when it got tangled in the fishing line. Although it won't grow back, they believe the squid is not in any danger. "It was quite an experience to feel the still-functioning tentacle" one of the team members commented on the sucking. He later added "the photos were even better". Oh, he'll be in the news again, but this time on assault and inter-species sodomy charges.

The team only released their findings now, a full year later. What happened to the good ol' days of discovery, when yellin' Eureka while running naked through the streets was acceptable practice? Did they think it was a matter of national security or something? Japan corners the ink market! I mean c'mon, this was pretty cool news and not politically sensitive at all. It was the very first time anyone has ever caught a glimpse of a creature like this in the wild and alive (a few dead or dying ones have washed ashore). And what if during this information lag, some drunken fisherman off the coast of Newfoundland found another giant squid...d'you think he'd wait a year to claim the fame? It's just weird that in this modern age of information technology, progress is impeded by red-tape and procedure.

Although the Giant Squid is believed to grow to 18m in length, an even larger species known as the Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is rumoured to exist. As big as these invertebrates are, Killer Whales eat them. Yes, those cute Orcas at Marineland attack them relentlessly...mammals rule!

It makes you wonder how many other species we haven't discovered yet, and I'm not talking about some spatially insignificant amoeba, but really large creatures. I mean, until 1976 no one knew of the Megamouth shark (does that sound like a small fish?), and the re-descovery of the though-to-be-extinct Coelacanth was only a few decades before that...and I won't even comment on Nessie and Sasquatch. Let's keep our eyes open folks!

UPDATE: A Mexican post-graduate student has just discovered a new species of shark in the Sea of Cortez. Named Mustelus hacat, the shark is appx. 5 feet in length and the first new species discovered in the area in 34 years.