It's a squid, it's an octopus, it's ... a mystery from the deep.
What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off Keahole Point on the Big Island remains unidentified today and could possibly be a new species, said local biologists.
The specimen was found caught in a filter in one of Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority's deep-sea water pipelines last week. The pipeline, which runs 3,000 feet deep, sucks up cold, deep-sea water for the tenants of the natural energy lab.
"When we first saw it, I was really delighted because it was new and alive," said Jan War, operations manager at NELHA. "I've never seen anything like that."
The natural energy lab is a state agency that operates Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park in Kailua-Kona, adjacent to one of the steepest offshore slopes in the Hawaiian Islands.
According to Richard Young, an oceanography professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the specimen tentatively belongs to the genus Mastigoteuthis, but the species is undetermined.
War, who termed the specimen "octosquid" for the way it looked, said it was about a foot long, with white suction cups, eight tentacles and an octopus head with a squidlike mantle.
The octosquid was pulled to the surface, along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and stayed alive for three days. According to War, the lab usually checks its filters once a month, but this time, it put a plankton net in one of the filters and checked it two weeks later.
The pitch-black conditions at 3,000 feet below sea level are unfamiliar to most but riveting to scientists who have had the opportunity to submerge. The sea floor is full of loose sediment, big boulders and rocks, and a lot of mucuslike things floating in the water, which are usually specimens that died at the surface and drifted to the bottom.
"It's quite fascinating," War said. "When you get below 700 feet, it's a totally different world. Lots of fish have heads like a fish and a body like an eel. There are fish floating in a vertical position, with the head up, and don't move unless they're disturbed."
Christopher Kelley, program biologist for the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, went to the natural energy lab Tuesday to pick up the preserved octosquid, rattail fish and jellyfish, which had been stored in a freezer, and brought them back to UH-Manoa's oceanography department.
"It's a beautiful squid. It's a gorgeous ruby red color," Kelley said. "We really enjoy these little mysteries that come up."
Also during Kelley's visit to NELHA yesterday, he and War talked about a more formal sampling program to search for other deep-sea critters. War said their goal is to sample the intake screen more often and capture animals alive and study them in captivity.
"This opens up a whole new area of research that UH can be involved with," War said.
In October, NELHA will be checking its deep-sea pipelines, something that usually happens every eight to 10 years, because it is worried that something might have happened to them during the earthquakes in October.
"If it's a new species, (NELHA) would like to name it," War said. "But that is sort of the honor of whoever classifies it."
Re: I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
What luck that it was a marine laboratory and not just a commerical operation... to have the expertise on site to say 'hang on this is new' talk about fortunate.
Our genes maybe in the basement but it does not stop us chosing our point of view from the top.
Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Pape for global overlord!!
Originally Posted by English assassin
Squid sources report that scientists taste "sort of like chicken"
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
The rest is either as average as advertised or, in the case of the missionary, disappointing.
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Re: I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
Octosquid....has anyone else just had a really good idea for a villain who wants to take over the world?
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb... Proud Supporter of the Gahzette
Re: I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
Giant squids are for pansies and forigners
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
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Re: I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
Originally Posted by Gregoshi
The next evolutionary step: octosquidaped
Cephalopod Erectus...The Erect upright Squid
Last edited by Ianofsmeg16; 07-07-2007 at 23:38.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb... Proud Supporter of the Gahzette
Re: I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
The curiousity here is, is it new? As is it an adapting species for a coming environment that its predicessors might not survive in. Or, is it simply a new find that hid itself well? Maybe it is a mule - where an octopus and squid got confused about species and fell in love irregardless of it being prohibited by their species, had babies and one survived. It is a mulato (sp), a crossbreed unworthy of either species - and now it's dead. Praise the lord zeus for the fishermen that destroyed it.
Regardless, it certainly tosses away any arguement about a species being able to evolve without the hand or involvement of Zeus. It happens ... don't it.
Still, I like the idea of confused species - rings a bell some how.
To forgive bad deeds is Christian; to reward them is Republican. 'MC' Rove
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Re: I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
Praise the lord zeus for the fishermen that destroyed it.
Not so fast on the honest worker bashing - it was scientists that destroyed it. And no one is suggesting it's a crossbreed - but don't let facts get in the way.
CR
Ja Mata, Tosa.
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter – all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement! - William Pitt the Elder
I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Re: I, for one, salute our new Octosquid overlords ...
That's it, I'm outta here. Call me octagon.
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