Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
Colossal squid filmed in deep ocean for the first time ever
Popular Science Team
In the darkness of the South Atlantic Ocean, researchers captured for the first time footage of a live colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). And while the elusive creature is known for its size—reaching lengths of 23 feet—this one is a baby and only one foot long.
In 1925, fisherman first found the remains of a colossal squid inside a sperm whale. Over the next century, only eight adult colossal squids have been found, all postmortem.
“It’s exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist,” Dr. Kat Bolstad of the Auckland University of Technology, an independent scientific expert who was consulted to verify the footage, said in a statement. “For 100 years, we have mainly encountered them as prey remains in whale and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish.”
A team of scientists captured the groundbreaking footage using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on March 9 while onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too). The 35-day expedition was part of an Ocean Census expedition searching for new marine life, and a collaboration between Schmidt Ocean Institute, the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, and GoSouth, a joint project between the University of Plymouth (UK), GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research (Germany), and the British Antarctic Survey.
The juvenile squid appears translucent as it slices through the water, but when it ages, it will become less see-through as its muscles thicken. Its large eyes—the largest of any known creature—can also be seen in the footage. Bolstad explains that the reason the squids have been so hard to find with cameras could be because of the sensitivity of their enormous eyes. “Most of our deep-sea exploration equipment is large, noisy and uses bright lights if we are trying to film animals,” Bolsted writes on The Conversation.
Dr. Jyotika Virmani, Schmidt Ocean Institute’s executive director, summed up the breakthrough: “These unforgettable moments continue to remind us that the Ocean is brimming with mysteries yet to be solved,”
This is the first confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, at depth in its natural habitat. Pilots filmed the young 30-centimeter-long (one-foot) cephalopod at about 600m near the South Sandwich Islands as the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle SuBastian descended through the water column on a dive aiming to discover new marine species, in partnership with Ocean Census during the #SouthSandwichIslands expedition.
Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was formally described and named 100 years ago, in 1925, based on two partial specimens found in the stomach of a sperm whale near the South Shetland Islands. However, no one has ever captured footage of a living colossal squid until now.
Seabirds, marine mammals, and fishes prey on juvenile colossal squid. At full size, their only known predators are sperm whales and sleeper sharks, although remains of large adults have also been found in toothfish stomachs, likely scavenged. Experts believe colossal squid may reach total lengths of 6 to 7 meters and weigh about as much as a small Italian Fiat at more than 500 kilograms, making them the heaviest known invertebrate.
Dr Kat Bolstad, associate professor and lab leader of the Auckland University of Technology Lab, NZ, worked with glass squid expert Dr. Aaron Evans to help confirm this observation, and she narrated this video.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2504.25 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3585 days ago & DAD = 240 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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