Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

Cracking the Kraken Case: Giant Squid Caught on Film

Giant squid

An ocean-going SWAT team of oceanic brainpower and technological brawn says it has captured moving images of a marine monster in its lair. In a PSMag.com article last July we detailed what would be the successful attempt to capture the elusive Architeuthis dux, AKA the giant squid, on video. Writer Ben Hellwarth noted: Architeuthis dux has mostly been seen dead or dying after washing up on shore, or when inadvertently caught up in commercial fishing nets. It has almost never been witnessed swimming freely, feeding, or otherwise going about its cephalopodic business in its natural environment. ... Read More

The Hunt to Catch the Giant Squid–On Film

Triton submersible

A hunt under way in a swath of North Pacific waters has dramatic echoes of Moby-Dick, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and, for that matter, The Abyss—especially since the spheroid cockpits of the minisubs being deployed look a lot like those featured in James Cameron’s sci-fi movie. In this month’s iteration of close encounters with sea creatures of the large kind, a group of researchers is plotting to shoot and capture a giant squid—on film. For all the many miles of footage documenting creatures large and small, there is virtually none of the giant squid, formally known as ... Read More

Marketing the Mystery of the Giant Squid

The new canary in the coal mine could be a giant squid. Conservation efforts often rally around charismatic species like the African elephant or the bald eagle. Popular affection for these "flagship" animals can be leveraged into funding and political will. But who speaks for the 95 percent of Earth's inhabitants without a backbone? No worm has the rock-star appeal of a Bengal tiger. Enter the giant squid. Ángel Guerra, a research professor at CSIC (the National Research Council of Spain), makes the case for turning this unusual animal, the largest invertebrate in the world, into a ... Read More