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Deep-sea monster caught on tape WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — A ghostly, 23-foot-long creature glides through the deep sea, its gossamer fins billowing against the black water. Its arms, more than half its total length, trail behind like delicate threads. The squid doesn’t react right away to the submarine’s approach, but it shoots away into the dark once the sub gets too close. Researchers have captured scenes like this on videotape eight times, in four different oceans, within recent years. That’s quite a lot of exposure for an animal that no one has reported seeing before. USING THIS FOOTAGE, an international...

Thousands of jumbo flying squid - aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles - have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, spooking scuba divers and washing up dead on tourist-packed beaches.

WELLINGTON (AFP) - The largest squid ever caught began to reveal its secrets Wednesday, including beach ball-sized eyes that scientists said were the biggest known in the animal kingdom. The 495-kilogram (1,090-pound) colossal squid -- accidentally caught by a fishing boat in Antarctic waters in February 2007 -- is slowly thawing under the fascinated gaze of a team of scientists at the Museum of New Zealand. While defrosting took longer than expected Wednesday, one of the earliest revelations were eyes measuring 27 centimetres (11 inches) across with lenses of 10 to 12 centimetres in diameter. In comparison, a human eye...

Boulder, CO, USA - Long before whales, the oceans of Earth were roamed by a very different kind of air-breathing leviathan. Snaggle-toothed ichthyosaurs larger than school buses swam at the top of the Triassic Period ocean food chain, or so it seemed before Mount Holyoke College paleontologist Mark McMenamin took a look at some of their remains in Nevada. Now he thinks there was an even larger and more cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs: a kraken of such mythological proportions it would have sent Captain Nemo running for dry land. McMenamin will be presenting the results of his...

A restaurant has created a dish, named Odori don - literally meaning dancing squid rice bowl - by adding soy sauce to a fresh squid. Video here. (Scroll down the page to see the video).

Australian scientists have discovered never-seen-before prehistoric marine life in the depths of the ocean below the Great Barrier Reef, the University of Queensland said Wednesday. Ancient “six-gilled” sharks, giant oil fish, swarms of crustaceans and many unidentified fish – all of which look worthy of a science-fiction film – were among the astounding marine life caught on camera some 1,400 meters (4,593 feet) below sea level. The team, led by Justin Marshall, also collected footage of the Nautilius, a relative of the octopus that still lives in a shell as they have done for millions of years. Team members used...

Jumbo Humboldt squid wash up minutes after 4.0 earthquake hit off the coast of La Jolla It was an odd start to the morning in La Jolla. First residents were jolted out of bed at 7.34 a.m. by a 4.0 magnitude earthquake that was centered 19 miles out to sea. First residents were jolted out of bed by an earthquake, which is not uncommon in San Diego, but what happened just minutes later was a little fishy. “I was having coffee up on the balcony and I felt it shaking,” Kate Lutkemeier said. She wasn’t the only one. “I heard...

"The animal, dubbed an "octosquid," is found off the Big Isle"

An adult specimen of the world’s largest known squid was hauled to the surface by a New Zealand longliner fishing for toothfish in Antarctic waters. The creature, known as a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) and with eyes the size of a car tire weighed an estimated 450 kilograms. The squid was eating a hooked toothfish when it was hauled from the deep by the vessel San Aspiring. "It is likely that it is the first intact adult male colossal squid to ever be successfully landed," Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said today. "The scientific community will be very interested in this...

Big blob baffles boffins July 2 2003 Chilean scientists were baffled today by a huge, gelatinous sea creature found washed up on the southern Pacific coast and were seeking international help identifying the mystery specimen. The dead creature was mistaken for a beached whale when first reported about a week ago, but experts who went to see it said the 40-foot-long (12-metre) mass of decomposing lumpy grey flesh apparently was an invertebrate. "We'd never before seen such a strange specimen, We don't know if it might be a giant squid that is missing some of its parts or maybe it's...

SANTIAGO, Chile - Fishermen found the 39-foot-long carcass of a sea creature on a beach in the south of Chile, and conservation specialists were trying to determine if it was an octopus. The creature, believed to be of the species octopus giganteus, was found near Los Muermos, 683 miles south of Santiago. The remains weigh about 13 tons. Elsa Cabrera, of the Cetacean Conservation Center, said that similar animals have been found recently in New Zealand. Cabrera, who is a specialist in submarine photography, took samples of the creature to send to Italy, France and the United States to determine...

SAN DIEGO -- Hundreds of squid are washing up on La Jolla Coves beaches as a result of warm El Nino weather patterns, 10News reported. Video - Calamari Anyone? The squid may be getting stuck in a warm water current and pushed into San Diego waters 10News reported. The beachings are creating a big problem for swimmers and a big stink for residents. The area is popular with divers and snorkelers, but officials are concerned that the squids' ink may be unhealthy. The jumbo flying squid, known by their scientific name Dosidicus gigas, normally nestle in the eastern Pacific Ocean....

Science in Search of the Low Rumble Infrasound can be used to communicate over thousands of km The study of low frequency sound is giving science new perspectives on the natural world as well as helping to develop novel weapons technologies. Julian Trick reports. Sound waves so low in frequency that the human ear cannot detect them may be behind ghostly sightings and haunted buildings. Human ears detect sounds in the frequency range of about 20 to 20,000 Hertz, or cycles per second. Anything below 20 Hz is defined as infrasound, which although not heard, is experienced in the form...

Sounds from the deep baffle scientists Mysterious giant beasts may lurk in the darkest depths of the ocean, making whale-like noises that are baffling scientists. Researchers have nicknamed the strange unidentified sound picked up by undersea microphones "Bloop". While it bears the varying frequency hallmark of marine animals, it is far more powerful than the calls made by any creature known on Earth. In 1997, Bloop was detected by sensors up to 3,000 miles apart, New Scientist magazine reports. One suggestion is that the sound is coming from giant squid, which live at extreme depths of up to two and...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Marine scientists in New Zealand on Tuesday were thawing the corpse of the largest squid ever caught to try to unlock the secrets of one of the ocean's most mysterious beasts. No one has ever seen a living, grown colossal squid in its natural deep ocean habitat, and scientists hope their examination of the 1,089-pound, 26-foot long colossal squid, set to begin Wednesday, will help determine how the creatures live. The thawing and examination are being broadcast live on the Internet. The squid, which was caught accidentally by fishermen last year, was removed from its freezer...

MONTEREY, Calif. - Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds is invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday. An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid — or Dosidicus gigas — can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. "Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another...

Updated:2007-02-22 13:47:58 Rare Squid Could Be Largest Ever Hooked Massive Catch Has Rings the Size of Truck Tires By RAY LILLEY AP WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Feb. 22) - A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday. The squid, weighing an estimated 990 pounds and about 39 feet long, took two hours to land in Antarctic waters, New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said. The fishermen were catching Patagonian toothfish, sold under the name Chilean sea bass, south of New Zealand "and...

Huge eyeball turns up in Pompano Beach Taking his usual morning stroll along the surf in Pompano Beach, Gino Covacci noticed a strange ball-like object at the high tide line. He kicked it over and found himself staring at the biggest eyeball he had ever seen. The blue, softball-sized orb he found Wednesday was a departure from the shells, cigarette butts and seaweed he usually sees. He put it in a plastic bag and put that in the refrigerator. "It was very, very fresh," he said Thursday. "It was still bleeding when I put it in the plastic bag." He...

<p>So much for the theory that President Bush's "obsession" with Saddam Hussein has detracted from the war on terrorism. The apprehension in Pakistan of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed certainly cut off that tired argument at the knees.</p> <p>As chief of operations, Mr. Mohammed was one of the biggest squids in the al-Qaida network. He is believed to have masterminded for Osama bin Laden the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. He's also thought to have orchestrated 1998's simultaneous bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.</p>

Dozens of large squid are reportedly washing up dead on the central Oregon coast near Heceta Head. Oregon State Parks and Recreation spokesman Chris Havel tells the Oregonian his office is hearing reports of dozens of what are probably Humboldt squid. He says they're typically much more common in warmer waters around Santa Cruz, Calif. Humboldt squid have also showed up recently in waters off the Washington coast and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Washington state and British Columbia's Vancouver Island. Commercial fishermen in the strait complained the giant squid were grabbing the salmon right off their...