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November 10, 2006

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Egg Sac Baffles Researchers

"It was 50-70 centimeters (19.5-27.5 inches) in diameter and looked like a huge beach ball. It was transparent but had a kind of thick, red cord in the middle. It was a bit science-fiction," Svensen told newspaper Bergens Tidende's web site.
The Svensens contacted associate professor Torleiv Brattegard at the University of Bergen, and other experts were notified to try and solve the mystery.

[...]

Colleague Arne Fjellheim, who works with Stavanger Museum, tipped off Brattegard that the organism resembled a photograph from New Zealand that he had seen. A zoology professor and squid expert in New Zealand corroborated by email - the peculiar gelatinous ball was a large squid egg sack.

"The gelatinous lump contains several fertilized eggs. This is not at all a common sight, because squids are some of the most inaccessible animals known," Fjellheim told iBergen.no.

Fjellheim told Aftenposten.no that squid are found in such numbers along the Norwegian coast that they are a commercial catch, and used mostly as bait. Despite this, extremely little is known about their biology.

Posted on November 10, 2006 at 2:14 PM • 6 Comments • View Blog Reactions

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Comments

I guess they are drawn there by the lutefisk. (A Lovecraftian dish if there ever was one...)

As a totally off-topic reference. "miskatonic.edu" happens to be owned by Perry E. Metzger, a well known figure in the Cypherpunk community. Now if he would just do something with it...

Posted by: Alan at November 10, 2006 2:47 PM

From that page you can link right to :
Animal bordellos draw Norwegians.
And, yes, it's about what you might think.
Bruce!

Posted by: forReal at November 10, 2006 6:27 PM

@Alan
If you think "Lutfisk" is lovecraftian you should meet it's big brother "Surströmming". It's the tactical nuclear weapon of traditional Swedish food.

Posted by: Student at November 10, 2006 7:16 PM

Alan, haha, I recall trying to register miskatonic.edu in like `93 or `94 and it was already taken then. I seem to recall "Metzger" being a character in one of Lovecraft's stories as well, but it's possible I just imagined that. The contact info used to be a fake HPL address in Arkham, MA too.

I have kept an eye on it over the years. The name servers have changed a few times, and it has a real address now, but I have never seen a web site hanging off of it, or gotten a reply from email queries. I just presumed the owner was trying to keep a low profile lest he have his very cool domain revoked.

Posted by: Harold at November 12, 2006 1:03 AM

This reminds me of something. I've tried to include a relevant URL in the field above, but if that doesn't work, C&P this one:

http://www.beechlog.co.uk/blog200501/rover.jpg

Best wishes,
Robin

Posted by: racingsnake at November 15, 2006 2:22 PM

Who cares

Posted by: qwerts at July 28, 2007 10:25 AM