I’ve finally managed to get hold of some shots! They were some of the last taken last night.
This is the shot just before the wave to the world.! These guys were pretty amazed at how many people were watching. They also really enjoyed the interactions and answering questions. It really was a cool occasion!
What other photos would you like to see? You ask and I’ll see if I can find them.
We have about 50Gb of photos and abour 150Gb of video. Our servers are grinding.
Lucy from IT at Te Papa
1 May 2008 at 4:39 pm
Has it been measured out yet? I’d love to see a picture of a close up of the eye. Thanks again for sharing this with the world! Cheers, Jackie
1 May 2008 at 4:44 pm
Hello,
I’m not sure if this is the place to write my comment, but here goes. THANK YOU SO MUCH for broadcasting all you did concerning the colossal squid(s). My children, their friends and their classrooms were captivated! The story not only shows so much about your research process, it started many discussions: sea life (what we know), deep sea life (how much we don’t know), anatomy (beaks! hooks! gelatinous?), whales, fisheries (where the fish we eat comes from, depletion, pollution, farming), sustainability, vegetarianism, ecosystems, character (doing the right thing, respect, etc.) — you name it.
I know it probably wasn’t an easy feat to get a story like this up on the web, but keep doing it, even re-runs. There are lots of us out here who will eat it up.
Keep up the good work!
Wendy
1 May 2008 at 4:48 pm
I’d love to see some detailed pictures of the anatomy as the smaller specimen was dissected, since that was largely off-camera for the webcast. I’m particularly interested in eyes, brains, and arm/tentacle musculature, but I was also intrigued by “the organs are at right angles to the ones in architeuthis” and “we’ve noticed something strange about the sucker morphology”– pics of the architeuthis dissection for comparison would be fun, too.
Ideally, it would be great if you could let people browse thumbnails on their own, but with that much data, it would, of course, be hard. There’s been a bit of talk that either the Discovery folks or the researchers might want to avoid having some of the pics and movies released, to avoid getting “scooped” on them… I’m thinking that there’s not a lot of academic piracy problems from the pics and vids without the pirate being able to examine the squids, and probably any raw footage is going to be free advertising for the Discovery special, rather than competition for it, but I don’t know that everyone would agree with me…
I’m sure I’ll enjoy any pictures you post, in any case!
Thanks again for putting this all together!
1 May 2008 at 4:54 pm
SWEET! That about sums it up. Was nice to check in here and see all the great pics/footage. Will you be able to put the larger one on a disection table, or is it really too large to do? Just wondering–amazing though that we are always learning something new about the world we live and the creatures that we share it with.
Thanks for the time and effort put into this blog!
1 May 2008 at 5:09 pm
Thx for finally releasing good shots of the ‘bus-sized’ beast. I wonder how you want to stretch it to give it 10 m? I have an uncle who is just as fat as this. Please support more realistic comparisons of size. A mantle length of 4 m? No way, this is much shorter. And a bus could easily run over this. So let us call the big-fat-uncle-sized squid.
1 May 2008 at 5:29 pm
Very interesting pics and vids of the Colossal Squid for the last few days.
My question is how much shrinkage of the squid since it was landed on the fishing boat. The squid looks a lot bigger on the BBC website’s pic of it being hoisted onto the fishing boat.
Also, have someone figure out how old is this squid?
1 May 2008 at 5:45 pm
I’ll see if I can get you some scientific views about the size tomorrow – I think those guys are probably in a darkened, low stimulus room now – they still have another day’s lectures tomorrow!
So I think they think the squid shrunk considerably in the freezer this last year and that the original estimates may have been a little ‘out’.
I will try to get them to comment some more about the age – they suspect about 2-3 years. You age a squid using a tiny part of its eye. It’s somewhere on the blog – anyone remember?
But it is difficult to know the age of the squid. That is why examining these specimens is really important – it helps the scientists build up enough information to make predications.
1 May 2008 at 5:50 pm
You age using the statolith…..tiny part of the”ear” I have heard of eye lenses being used but I don’t know how reliable it is. They didn’t remove the statoliths from the big girl it would have destroyed the head!
1 May 2008 at 6:04 pm
You’re right Jean – I will check whether they got them off the other one – but I know that one’s eyes were in pretty bad shape.
1 May 2008 at 11:58 pm
I am still amazed at the whole thing! Thanks again for the squidcam and all the fabulous pictures!
I am watching the last few hours again as we speak, as the only part i missed (living in Canada) was when you flipped her over.
I was just wondering, when will she be moved to the display tank at the museum, and will we get to see any part of that too? It would be quite Awsome to watch her be takin from where she is now, and be placed in the final display tank, heck would even be Awsome to see how the display tank is going to be made
One last question, lol When she is in the display for people to see at the museum, will she be “painted” or anything so she is all one color again, or will she be left exactly as is where some of the skin is missing?
Thanks if you can answer any of these
You guys are the greatest!!!!!
2 May 2008 at 12:39 am
Dear Lucy,
I am an artist and film maker in london,
I wonder if there is any chance to have original video data sent to me?
can you let me know if this would be possible, and if so, how?
all the best, and good luck on this great work,
Hilary
2 May 2008 at 4:33 am
Hey what happened to the second picture where they were all holding her and looking up at the webcam? That one was AWSOME! I hope you can put it back up, it was the best pic of her yet!!
2 May 2008 at 7:58 am
Great job, all!! Thank you so much — and especially you Mark, for putting up with me, huh? My very best to all of you, as I anxiously await your next great endeavor!
2 May 2008 at 9:58 am
I live in a tiny village in the middle of the state of Illinois, in the middle of the USA.
Who would have ever thought that I could watch this event unfold so very far away.
It is almost as amazing as this beautiful creature herself!
I will look forward to learning what she has to teach you. Thank you so very much for sharing!
2 May 2008 at 11:19 am
Thanks for adding that photo back, I see you moved it from here to “A Great Photo” section. It’s my favorite pic
I was worried that it was gone for good, lol
2 May 2008 at 12:07 pm
Hey Karen – sorry I accidentally deleted it and then had some trouble getting it back in the post again! It has been a big week.