Friday 23 February 2007

Colossal Squid madness




Since someone on dissensus raised the theme of colossal squid moons ago with the picture above (which is, sadly, a replica), I have found myself suffering from a masochistic interest in these scary creatures. So the fact that some fisherman managed to catch a live one was big news in my world, as there are seemingly a fair few of these beasts in the sea. These things give me the fear. Whereas if I was confronted by a shark in the sea, I would be a bit scared; If I were confronted by one of these things, I would probably die on the spot. Things this size are not meant to be translucent, or have beaks.

“This animal, armed as it is with the hooks and the beak that it has, not only is colossal in size but is going to be a phenomenal predator and something you are not going to want to meet in the water” Kat Bolstad – Research Associate, Aukland University of Technology

Congratulations Kat, Research Associate of stating the bleeding obvious. Apparently, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni only hang out in the Antartic, so my chance of encountering one in the sea is minimal, and if I am in their part of the world I will be seriously cold, and seriously kitted out in breathing apparatus. However, you would probably casually place odds on this encounter to be similar to those of a whale swimming past the houses of Parliament.

We could have a black swan incident of me going for a paddle and encountering one of these things. That is all I am saying.

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