Purpose (aka Architeuthis) is by far one of the most mysterious sea monsters in the oceans and around the world.
Believed to live between 396 and 914 meters below sea level, giant squid inhabit the deepest, darkest places on Earth. No one knows how long they live, how they mate, how they migrate, or how they make sounds. In a word, this animal has so far remained a mystery.
Many genetic documents put the age of giant squid up to 730,000 years ago. They are also the inspiration to create many species of sea monsters in the legendary treasure of mankind from hundreds of years ago, such as the Kraken sea monster in Norse mythology, or the giant octopus in the novel "Twenty Thousand Years". miles under the sea" by the great writer Jules Verne.
In particular, a quote in "Norway's Natural History" published in 1755 described giant squid as being about the size of "several small islands" and, when submerged, caused whirlpools deep enough to suck people in.
Until about 150 years ago, most people did not think that giant squid were real, but just something woven from the stories of sailors. But the evidence of their existence is becoming more and more clear thanks to another animal - the sperm whale, thanks to the scars on the body or the part of the squid's beak found in the stomach of the fish. This.
In 1857, Japetus Steenstrup, a zoologist from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, first introduced the name giant squid to the world scientific community. After studying a squid mine that washed ashore, Mr. Steenstrup published research to prove to the world that giant squid are in fact real. He named them Architeuthis Dux, Latin for "king squid".
In 1873, three fishermen in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, Canada were caught by a giant squid trying to sink their boat. They fought it, and the squid had to run away after releasing clumps of black ink. However, the fishermen still retained a tentacle more than 5 meters long, more evidence of the existence of this legendary sea monster.
Another proof of the existence of giant squid is that their carcasses often wash up on the beaches. The reason is because the squid's body is filled with ammonium ions, which are lighter in mass than seawater, making them often float to the surface after they die.
In 1997, the US National Geographic Society tried to rely on sperm whales to study giant squid. They attached cameras to the sperm whales in hopes of witnessing their encounter with the giant squid, but were unsuccessful.
Despite Streetstrup's early success, few others can make a name for themselves from studying giant squids alone, because they rarely appear. Among such rare cases is New Zealand marine biologist Steve O'Shea, who was dubbed "The Squid Hunter" by The New Yorker and was once regarded as one of the world's most famous scientists. Research the world's most famous giant squid. He embarked on his mission from 1996 to 2011.
When asked why he was able to stick with this, he said it came from his oath after he failed to document the life cycle of a giant squid, from birth to adulthood.
One of O'Shea's goals is to show the giant squid alive in the tank to the public. He wants everyone, not just scientists and fishermen, to experience "the greatness of these creatures" firsthand, instead of the images shown on TV.
In 2003, O'Shea led a research team in trying to capture images of giant squid as they migrated into New Zealand waters. His plan was to crush the squid's sexual organs and mix them into the water so the giant squid could mate right in front of the camera.
The goal, he said, is to get "stunner footage of the mating of the giant squid." However, the test ultimately failed.
Then, on September 30, 2004, marine biologists Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori took the first picture of a giant squid living off the Japanese island of Chichijima, after discovering numerous scars on its body. Sperm whales live in these waters.
They lowered a device with a camera and decoys to a depth of 914 meters. A giant squid attacked and used its tentacles to grab the prey like a python. After 4 hours of struggling to free its tentacles but failed, the squid died.
Mr. Tsunemi said the incident changed the perception of the giant squid, from a gentle creature to an agile predator of the deep sea.
Then, in 2006, Tsunemi's team published the first video of a giant squid alive. It is relatively small, weighing only about 50 kg and 3.3 meters long, but it was the first live image of the creature. "Nobody has ever seen a giant squid alive except the fishermen," he told Reuters.
By 2007, the carcass of a giant squid washed ashore on the island of Tasmania, Australia weighed about 250 kg, nearly 2 m long while the tentacles were up to 8 m long, equivalent to the length of a car. bus. This is one of the largest squid ever discovered, said David Pemberton, curator of the Tasmanian museum.
In 2012, for the first time in history, a giant squid was filmed in its natural habitat, using a specialized camera designed by biologist Edith Widder, with ability to emit blue light.
Widder told the BBC there are probably millions of such giant squids in the oceans to support such a wide variety of sperm whales. It's just that humans scare them, so this squid rarely appears. Understanding this, she designed a camera that has no thrusters or motors, and does not emit red light because it is completely invisible to marine animals, which are innately adapted only to seeing. green light.
"Squid Hunter" Steve O'Shea was also present on this great occasion. He also announced that this was the end of the pursuit of this mystical animal for 15 years. "When others can end the game by capturing the most beautiful image of this living animal, people like me don't have to chase that dream anymore," O'Shea said.
More evidence of giant squid continued to be collected in 2016, when the carcass of a female squid weighing up to 104 kg washed up on the Bares peninsula in Spain. And most recently, in June 2019, a live giant squid was discovered for the first time in US waters, about 160 km southwest of the coast of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.
To date, the largest giant squid ever recorded has a length of up to 13 meters, but scientists believe they can reach lengths of up to 20 meters. In addition, they are also the animals with the largest eyes in the world, with a diameter of up to 30 cm, about the size of a basketball.
Giant squid has 8 small tentacles and 2 long tentacles to capture prey. But their tentacles don't have any muscles to control their prey. So if faced with a sperm whale, they can just run away.
Clyde Roper, a retired giant squid hunter, told the BBC that if trapped with all the tentacles, it would be difficult for the giant squid to escape.
But much about this sea monster is still unknown, and as the sea water is getting warmer and more acidic, the giant squid is slowly dying without people noticing.
Until now, they are still elusive mysteries. As Mr Roper once told the BBC, given their size and fearsome nature, it's easy to imagine them as ferocious beasts.
"However, humans still need monsters like them," he concluded.
