Squid for the Squeamish

ANCHOR: Australian Scientists are trying to learn deep-sea secrets from a captured giant squid. They dissected the giant squid in front of a live audience at Australia’s Museum of Victoria. Lets take a seat in the audience. STORY: Some of the squid’s tentacles are almost 50 feet long. It was caught in fishing nets off the coast of Victoria last month [Rangi Pene, Local Fisherman]: “They pulled it to the side of the boat out of the way and put bags of ice on it and covered it with hessian bags, hessian sacks, because it was too big to put into our ice room.” The Victoria Museum’s squid expert briefed the audience on the creatures height and weight. [Mark Norman, Squid Expert]: “We’ve actually lifted it and found that it was 248 kilogrammes so that it’s a known weight specimen.” Norman said the dissection can teach scientists a great deal about the animal’s way of life. [Mark Norman, Squid Expert]: “The tissue samples are critical, we’ll get more on diet from the digestive gland, we’ll analyze the curves in the beak growth to see if we can try and get some more accurate age estimates.” He added animals like giant squids experience fluctuations in food resources. [Mark Norman, Squid Expert]: “Even the deep sea has seasons of plenty and seasons of drought in that they rely on food coming from the surface.” The squid is among the largest ever caught and will be put back together for display at the museum.
Video Rating: 5 / 5