A MonsterQuest Look at "Giant Squid Found"

In the Sea of Cortez between the Baja Peninsula and the Mexican mainland, local fishermen fear what is known as Diablo Rojo or the red devil. This creature is the Humboldt squid. This large and aggressive predatory squid may be the source of many of the squid attack stories of legend. While the Humboldt is known to grow to lengths of up to 8 feet, many feel that there may be 50 foot giant Humboldt squids lurking in the depths. In the MonsterQuest episode of “Giant Squid Found”, the MonsterQuest team takes up the search for this monster of the deep.

The Background

In the 12th century, Norwegian sailors first reported a giant squid like sea monster which they referred to as the kraken. These creatures were reported to have tentacles that stretched as high as the tallest of masts and they were able to create whirlpools that would sink a ship. In 1861, French sailors claimed to have been attacked by a 36’ long kraken like creature off of the Canary Islands. Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea contains the famous battle between the crew of the Nautilus and giant squid. Whalers in the 18th and 19th century reported of finding giant squid in the stomachs of sperm whales. Whalers would also find sperm whales with sucker marks around their jaws and mouth like they had been in some epic struggle with a giant squid.

In the 20th century, the existence of creature of the deep was confirmed with the identification of the architeuthis. The architeuthis or giant squid specimens were found in the nets of fishermen and washed up on the shores all over the world from New Zealand to Newfoundland. Some of these specimen were as long as 57 feet which would be larger than many early seagoing vessels. The search for a living specimen continued until 2004, when a team from the National Science Museum of Japan filmed a live 26’ long specimen at a depth of 3,000 feet off the Ogaswara Islands. Scientists now believe these giant squids to inhabit the depths of all of the world’s oceans.

Another type of squid was caught by a New Zealand fishing vessel in February of 2007. While fishing in Antarctica’s Ross sea, the fishermen brought in a 33 foot long, 1,000 pound squid. This species known as the colossal squid is the largest squid species known and is found in the seas around Antarctica. Colossal squid have eyes the size of volleyballs and tentacles lined with sharp hooks.

While giant squid and colossal squid are closer in size to the kraken legends, they do not exhibit the aggressive behavior that is found in the legends. This aggressiveness is found in abundance with the Humboldt squid. The largest known Humboldt squids are eight feet long and weigh around 200 pounds. They have tentacles with suckers that are lined with sharp teeth. They have an extremely sharp beak that divers have described as a pair of two large scissors. The torpedo shaped body of the Humboldt squid is propelled through the water by ejecting water through a muscular funnel at speeds of up to 20 mph.

Dr. Roger Hanlon, senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole Massachusetts, gave his view on the Humboldt squid. The squid migrate between the deep depths of the ocean to areas close to the surface in search of food sources. At the deeper depths, the Humboldt squid uses their specialized eye in order to find prey. The aggressive behavior of Humboldt squid lead to the possibility of them attacking and killing a human.

Scott Cassell is a squid researcher with over 11,000 hours of dive time. He described how he was attacked in 1996 by several Humboldt squid. While diving in the Sea of Cortez, he was attacked by a group of several 6 foot long Humboldt squids. The first squid grabbed his arm and wrenched it out of the socket. Two other squid grabbed his legs and began to drag him down to greater depths. As the squid pulled him down, his eardrums burst. After being dragged down about 70 feet, he was finally able to beat the squid off with his camera and make it safety back to his ship.

Another dangerous aspect about the Humboldt is that they may be able to communicate with each other and coordinate attacks on their victims. Cassell describes how the Humboldt uses specialized skin cells known as chromatiphors to rapidly change their skin color from red to white. These chromatiphors are wired directly to the Humboldt’s large brain. Cassell and some other researchers believe that the Humboldt use these color changes as a form of communication. He believes that they are able to communicate in this manner to coordinate attacks and signal danger.

Researcher Doug Hajicek believes that there may be much larger Humboldt squid at the unexplored deeper depths of the Sea of Cortez. He theorizes that the smaller squid must migrate through the levels of the ocean in order to survive while the larger specimen stay at the lower depths and survive by cannibalizing the smaller squid. The MonsterQuest team investigates the possibility of these giant Humboldt squid.

The Plan

The MonsterQuest team is led by lead diver Dale Pearson and Scott Cassell. They plan on using a pseudo morph lure to capture a Humboldt squid. The captured squid will need to be large enough to have specialized camera equipment attached to one of its fins. The squid will then dive with the camera down to the depths where the giant Humboldt may possibly live. In this manner the team hopes to capture footage of the giant Humboldt squid. They refer to the plan as Project Trojan.

The pseudo morph lure is highly specialized and referred to by the team as Sue. The specialized lure is designed by Doug Hajicek and manufactured at Metro Molded in Minneapolis. The lure is meant to attract a Humboldt squid and capture it without the use of barbed hooks.

Due to his frightening experience with Humboldt squid, Cassell seeks to improve the team safety through the use of specialized diving suit armor. Cassell works with marine biologist Jeremiah Sullivan, who previously developed the Nepunic Sharksuit. Together they design a diving suit utilizing titanium composite material that will withstand the bite force of the squid beak.

Cassell plans to use local fishermen in order to help find the pods of squid. This is necessary because the squid to not show up very well of fish finder sonar due to their body composition. To help with this, the Hummingbird company specially modifies sonar equipment to increase the likelihood of detecting the squid.

Every plan has its detractors including this one. Jeff Zernov, the CEO of Nature Vision Incorporated feels very doubtful of the teams chances of success. He does however supply the team with special underwater cameras to use on the project. These cameras will feed video back to the team via a 1500 foot video cable with a Kevlar core.

The Expedition

The team’s expedition to capture video footage of a giant Humboldt squid gets off to a rough start. The area has a very strong tropical storm approaching that makes conditions very difficult. On the first day the team is unable to find a Humboldt squid that is large enough to carry the camera equipment. The seas are very rough due to the approaching seas. Swells and shifting currents are strong enough to make the experienced dive team nauseas. This is extremely dangerous because vomiting while diving can easily lead to death.

On the second day of the expedition, the team is under extreme time constraints as the tropical storm is imminent. The teams luck improves when at around 700 feet deep a Humboldt squid becomes entangled on the lures barbless hooks. The team carefully reels the squid to the surface so as not tire it out. The specimen which is five to six feet long and around 200 pounds is the perfect size for the camera system. The Humboldt lashes out at Pearson and Cassell as they attach the camera and light system to its fin with a breakaway system.

Once released the Humboldt begins to dive. As it descends, other Humboldt squid display some curious behavior. They seem to be biting at the camera but not attacking the camera laden squid. It appears as if they are curious and investigating this unknown object.

The squid descends to over 1000 feet with the camera attached to its fin. Due to the roughness of the sea, the crew is not able to watch any live footage from the camera. The team is running out of time as the tropical storem approaches. They wait until the last possible minute and the crew brings the camera squid back towards the surface. The crew releases the camera squid and quickly heads to shore with their footage.

Back on shore, the crew reviews the squid footage. While down deep below the surface, the camera squid begins rapidly flash color as if warning of approaching danger. Out of the darkness a massive shape of a squid appears on the tape. The team is not sure what kind of squid is on the tape but they are sure it is huge.

The Results

The team sends the footage to Dr. Roger Hanlon. He attempts to identify the species type that is found on the footage. Unfortunately the footage is not quite clear enough to make a proper species classification. Hanlon in unable to say for sure if the captured footage is of a giant squid or a Humboldt squid.

In order to understand the size of the creature that is shown in the footage, it is sent to Peter Schmitz of Motion Engineering. Schmitz is an expert in utilizing film footage to determine sizing. He uses known proportions of beak to eye distances and arm width dimensions for both the Humboldt and Giant Squid to come up with size estimates. Schmitz used Humboldt squid proportions to determine that it would be 60 feet long. That would be about ten times larger than the largest previously known Humboldt squid. When Schmitz used giant squid proportions, he found that the creature would be an amazing 108 feet long. This is as long as the largest creature know to exist, the blue whale.

So while the team was unable to get footage clear enough to definitively identify giant Humboldt squid, they were able to find some intriguing evidence. No matter what type of squid it is, the Sea of Cortez in home to some massive squid creatures. The idea of huge Humboldt squids hunting in packs is truly frightening.