Japan's NHK (sort of like the British BBC), their National Museum of Nature and Science and the Discovery Channel will show the first video of the giant squid on 27January2012, taken down to a depth of nearly 3,000 feet. This clip shows a Kracken (or giant squid) attacking their submarine. However an article this morning in the Star Advertiser merely mentions this squid "attacking" a squid bait. In any case, after 100 dives, they succeeded only once. This one (right) was only 9 feet long. While I suspect this is mostly hype, this news article will double the viewership.
Why am I disappointed? Well, a 27 foot Architeuthis (a kind of giant squid) was captured and studied as early as 1873 near Newfoundland. A rather large one attacked Nemo in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (this clip shows the monster at least 60 feet long), and there was the one that fought a sperm whale in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Sure those are fictitious, but the reality is that an adult giant squid is much, much longer than 9 feet.
According to Wikipedia, females reach a maximum size of 43 feet, males 33 feet, but specimens supposedly measuring 66 feet have not been scientifically documented. Also indicated was the first photographs in 2004 and the first filming in 2006 by this same Japanese team. So the Discovery Channel program mentioned above must be six years old news!
Who is Malcolm Foster, who wrote this article? Well, he works for Associated Press out of Tokyo;
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Tropical Cyclone Narelle is now up to 90 MPH, but is expected to reach Category 4 status along the northwest coast of Australia:
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