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Science

The Beast of Timble Tickle

by Margaret Etherton

GIANT SQUID IS FOUND AT TIMBLE TICKLE---so spread the news on the 2nd of November, 1878 at Timble Tickle in Newfoundland, Canada. A crew of fishermen found a giant squid floating near rocks in the bay. They used their anchor to catch hold of its body. Dragging it to shore, they tied the giant squid it to a tree and measured it---55 feet or 17 meters, fully stretched out it. But as the tide fell, the animal left stranded on the rocks died.

There's no such thing as a giant squid you say! Does it sound like the stuff of science fiction or horror movies?

Mythological stories surround these giant beasts. The Vikings imagined that they had seen mermaids or Kraken, a Norse sea monster, which supposedly stretched one mile and could sink the largest ship! Sailors also called them "living islands" because the giant squid resembled a chain of small islands.

During the 19th century, giant squid were part of fictionalized stories, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Verne tells of a battle between a giant squid and the crew of an enormous submarine. Melville describes the giant squid as "a vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-colour, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas."

Contrary to these myths and stories, scientists agree that the giant squid does exist! Its scientific name is Architeuthis dux (pronounced ark-e-TOOTH-iss), which means king squid. The giant squid is a carnivorous mollusk of the cephalopod family. Cephalopods are animals with an internal skeleton, such as octopus, cuttlefish, and other small squid. Giant squid eat fish, other squid, and whales.

Giant squid move through the ocean by spurting water out of their bodies. If a giant squid was swimming towards you it would look a bit like a toilet brush. At the front is a pointy fin, shaped like a sharp spearhead. In the middle is a body called the mantle. It contains two large eyes, the largest in the animal kingdom. At the base of the mantle is a hole with a sharp beak-like mouth, similar to the beak of a cockatoo. Trailing behind the mantle are five pair of tentacles. One pair is longer and thinner than the rest. These tentacles catch food and feed it into the mouth.

If what scientists tell us is true, why have we not heard about the giant squid before? Why don't fishermen catch them? Why don't we have calamari rings the size of tractor tires on the menu?

Giant squid are found between 200 and 4,000 meters (700 feet to 2½ miles) below the surface of the North Atlantic, Northern Pacific, Southern Ocean, Sea of Japan, and off the coast of Norway, Hawaii, and California. They are hard to observe in the wild because they live so far down in the ocean. No one could safely travel to those depths until submersibles were invented.

Only 100 specimens have been found in the last 400 years. In October of 1997, fisherman off the coast of Australia caught three giant squid in nets, each measuring about 49 feet or 15 meters long. But when giant squid come to close to the surface where there is less oxygen, they suffocate. Scientists therefore, continue to explore for giant squid in the murky depths of their habitat.

Mermaids, living islands, and monsters from the deep are figments of our imagination. But giant squid exist. Though they are seldom seem, imagine the deadly suckers and the crunching beak of the beast at Timble Tickle Bay.

Bibliography

Richard, Ellis. The Search for the Giant Squid. New York: Lyons Press, 1998.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1952.

Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1995.

Video

Chasing Giants: On the Trail of the Giant Squid, (video recording) March 2002 Discovery Channel.

Internet sources

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9710/18/fringe.australia.squid/

http://www.unmuseum.org/squid.htm

http://partners.si.edu/squid/

http://dailyrevolution.com/allgood/010427.html#today

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/squid_links.html

The End

Margaret Etherton is a teacher, tutor and writer. She has taught a range of subjects, such as reading, writing, mathematics and computers to people of all ages - from small kids to seniors. Her publishing credits include over twenty fiction and non-fiction articles for Australian School Magazines. Many of her stories have been created about animals from an interesting viewpoint or with a twist in the telling. Margaret lives close to the beach in Sydney with her husband, her four children and her cat, Mushka..

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