I’m trying to imagine three more horrifying words than "jumbo", "flying", and "squid", but I just can’t. That’s the last thing I need, to be walking along, minding my own business, and whack, hit in the face by some slimy, eight-armed creep. You’ll notice that the article below doesn’t mention the range of these beasts—is anywhere safe?
Friday, October 15, 2004 Posted: 8:24 PM EDT (0024 GMT)
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — A large Humboldt squid caught offshore from Sitka is among numerous sightings of a species seen for the first time in waters of the Far North, and the first of the species recovered from British Columbia waters.
The 5-foot Dosidicus gigas, or jumbo flying squid, was shipped this week to California to be kept for research at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
The farthest north the species has been reported until this year was off the coast of Oregon in 1997, said James A. Cosgrove, manager of natural history at the Royal British Columbia Museum. Before that year, the farthest north it was seen was near San Francisco, he said.
Until this summer, there have been no other sightings in the north, Cosgrove said.
“It’s unprecedented,” he said. “It speaks of a fundamental change in the ocean along the coast.”
The museum is keeping a 6 1/2-foot, 44-pound Dosidicus gigas in a formaldehyde tank. The purple-bodied cephalopod with eight sucker-covered arms and two curly tentacles was caught October 2.
Read the full article at http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/15/flying.squid.ap/index.html
Oct 15, 2004 under Squidwatch