RSS | 
Twitter
| 
Be a fan!
Beware the Kraken Smithsonian exhibit at Cal. U. sheds light on the giant squid, the legendary monster of the deep
CALIFORNIA - As aquatic creatures go, giant squid are kind of like Howard Hughes when he was in his urine-bottling, tinfoil-over-the-windows phase: elusive and mysterious as all get-out.
Because they live so deep in the sea, in conditions that make it tough for scientists to observe them as they go about eating other fish and trying to avoid sperm whales, they have been photographed and videotaped in their natural habitat only once. Fewer than 20 of the giant squid wash up on shore every year or get caught in the nets of fishermen, and there's really no way to determine how many there are, or if their ranks are growing or thinning due to global climate change.
Rate This Story:
1 the lowest - 5 the highest
Current rating:
"The educational component is really big," said Cal U. spokesman Bruce Wald. "We have a lot of school groups lined up to come and see it."
The exhibit contains panels that outline the anatomy of the giant squid, describe some of the legends surrounding it (including the possibility that the giant squid inspired the Jules Verne novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea") and examples of its razor-sharp beak preserved in glass. The exhibit is in the Manderino Gallery of Fine Art in the Manderino Library, where the lighting is kept a bubbly, oceanic blue to approximate an under-the-sea mood.
According to exhibit co-curator Clyde Roper, an emeritus zoologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, trying to uncover clues about the giant squid is one of the most vexing of scientific mysteries.
"We know more about the moon's behind than the ocean's bottom," Roper noted from his home in Urbanna, Va. He also pointed out that we know more about some dinosaurs than we do about the giant squid, which is the largest invertebrate that has ever lived.
When giant squids do turn up, they're hard to miss - they can weigh up to a ton, be as long as a school bus and have eyes as big as the human head. They usually swim about 1,600 to 3,000 feet beneath the surface of the ocean, and when they do wash ashore, it tends to be around New Zealand or the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, according to exhibit co-curator Jennifer Bine.
"When they die, they float up to the surface, and when you find a creature that large, it's quite disturbing," she said.
It's believed that giant squid have been the source of several seafaring legends over the centuries, from sea serpents to sea monks. It was only in 2004 that a team of Japanese scientists was able to photograph the giant squid in its natural habitat, and the same group captured video images in 2006.
Roper was once involved in a venture where video cameras were strapped onto the heads of sperm whales in an attempt to videotape the giant squid, but none was found.
Despite discoveries that have been made about the giant squid recently, there are still some puzzles that need to be put together. First of all, no one is sure how long they live. No one is all that sure how they swim. And the ability of whales to track them down when scientists cannot remains a mystery.
"They're a very charismatic animal," Bine said. "People are fascinated by the giant squid."
In the spring, Cal U. will be hosting a Smithsonian-sponsored exhibit of photographs of Earth taken from space, and next summer an exhibit on Filipino Americans is scheduled to stop at the Manderino Library. An exhibit on the late Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente is due at Cal U. in the summer of 2010.
