Right now, somewhere in the depths of the ocean, lurks a creature worthy of the title, sea monster. The only problem is, we’ve never seen one alive. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
Giant Squid have been found dead or dying, sometimes caught in fish nets, but they’ve never been observed in their home habitat in the deep oceans. Their habits are mostly a mystery, but here’s a sampling of what we do know about them.
They’ve got two long tentacles, eight arms and a bird-like beak. And with it, they feed voraciously upon fish and other creatures, and the squid themselves are preyed upon by Sperm Whales. We know that because we find squid beaks inside sperm whale stomachs. They can reach lengths of up to 36 feet — now that sounds like a lot of calamari, but maybe not. Kurt Fristrup is the Assistant Director of the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University.
“The squid that we eat as calamari have a lot of muscle tissue, which is one reason why they’re so firm, and they’re very active swimmers. Giant squids are not quite as muscular. They have ammonia ions in their muscle tissue, which they put there for buoyancy. So where the squid that we eat have to swim to maintain their level in the water, giant squid can remain motionless for long periods of time without sinking or floating.”
Some other clues to the squid’s behavior come from their anatomy.
“We do know that they have an enormous eye which is clearly adapted to seeing in very low light conditions. Some squids have primitive eyeballs on the ends of their arms, so they can actually examine their own silhouette. These small clues suggest that vision and light are a critical part of predation in the deep ocean.”
More on giant squid in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. I’m Jim Metzner.