At present we have the large giant squid that we took out of the freezer yesterday afternoon almost completely defrosted on the examination bench. We will be examining this specimen during the afternoon.
The first part of the examination is using the endoscope to check for stomach contents:
Exposing the beak at the center of the branchial crown:
Just before lunch we added a metric tonne of ice to the thawing tank to bring the temperature down before we put the large colossal specimen into the water at 3 pm today.
The smaller colossal specimen is thawing in the bench sink, but probably will not be thawed enough until tomorrow morning.
Occasionally there may be times when nothing much appears to be happening – we do have to feed the scientists – some who shall remain nameless have been eyeing the fresh squid and heard to be muttering about sushi . . . .
28 April 2008 at 3:07 pm
Since you have no sound it would be helpful if you had someone doing some real time blogging so that we can follow what is being said and done.
28 April 2008 at 3:11 pm
Thanks for comment – we’re looking into audio. Butin the meantime will try to do some real time blogging to keep you posted.
They’re measuring the giant squid’s tentacles at the moment!
28 April 2008 at 7:34 pm
This is awesome! Thank you so much for making the blog and footage available for the public to see what’s going on
29 April 2008 at 5:55 am
Wonderful educational blogging, Chris. Everyone looks engaged and happy. Watch out for Olaf, though: if you leave him alone there won’t be any Meso left to examine.
29 April 2008 at 11:06 am
Glad Olaf survived the Archi attack! Still waiting to find out what wine he would pair with squid sushi. A good Marlborough white perhaps?
30 April 2008 at 11:00 am
We are watching this from Tucson, Arizona, USA. It is wonderful. Thanks for sharing the information as it comes available.