Entries Tagged "squid"

Page 107 of 108

Friday Squid Blogging: Ben Deacon, Squid Researcher

Third item on the page:

According to juicy folklore and loose legend, for centuries, the inky waters of our deepest oceans have been home to that most mysterious of marine creatures—the giant squid. Well, as we speak, visitors to Melbourne’s aquarium can take a gander at the real thing, a 7m-long squid, caught in New Zealand and frozen in a block of ice.

For 30 years, almost obsessively, one real scientific character from across the Tasman has been chasing these elusive creatures and Ben Deacon caught up with him, hard at what’s clearly become his life’s work.

Posted on March 31, 2006 at 3:05 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Poaching in Argentina

Squid fishing turns into an international incident back in February 2005:

A Taiwanese flagged jigger allegedly poaching in the South Atlantic was arrested by the Argentine Coast Guard after intimidating fire. This is the second incident in a week.

According to Argentine sources the 35 crew jigger was detected operating in the Isla Rasa area, 199 miles offshore Comodoro Rivadavia, and refused to stop engines when approached by a Coast Guard vessel.

Primary reports indicate that “Chich Man 1” was transporting 3,700 boxes of 12,5 kilos each of frozen squid, plus another 68 of fresh squid stored on deck.

When the jigger instead of obeying orders tried to flee the Argentine Coast Guard vessel fired intimidating shots. She was then boarded by a party of Argentine sailors and is currently being escorted to Comodoro Rivadavia where the captain will face charges of illegal fishing.

Less that a week ago another Taiwanese jigger, “Hsien Hua 6” was caught red-hand poaching in the same area and was by ARA Guerrico and escorted to Puerto Deseado.

Posted on March 17, 2006 at 3:32 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid in Australia

On television:

According to juicy folklore and loose legend, for centuries, the inky waters of our deepest oceans have been home to that most mysterious of marine creatures—the giant squid. Well, as we speak, visitors to Melbourne’s aquarium can take a gander at the real thing, a 7m-long squid, caught in New Zealand and frozen in a block of ice.

For 30 years, almost obsessively, one real scientific character from across the Tasman has been chasing these elusive creatures and Ben Deacon caught up with him, hard at what’s clearly become his life’s work.

Watch the video here.

Posted on March 10, 2006 at 2:46 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid in London's Natural History Museum

There’s a 28-foot (8.62-meter) giant squid on display at the Natural History Museum in London:

It took several months to prepare the squid for display.

“The first stage was to defrost it; that took about four days. The problem was the mantle – the body – is very thick and the tentacles very narrow, so we had to try and thaw the thick mantle without the tentacles rotting,” Mr Ablett told the BBC News website.

The scientists did this by bathing the mantle in water, whilst covering the tentacles in ice packs, after which they injected the squid with a formol-saline solution to prevent it from rotting.

The team then needed to find someone to build a glass tank which could not only hold the huge creature, but could leave the squid accessible for future scientific research, and they decided to draw upon the knowledge of an artist famed for displaying preserved dead animals.

The website has a video. Here is another news story. Damien Hirst got involved in the defrosting.

Note that this squid is larger than the 25-foot specimen on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Posted on March 3, 2006 at 3:24 PM • View Comments

1 … 105 106 107 108

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.