John and others

If you listen to what the video actually says, it is quite clear that
the giant squid that is being preserved came from a trawler and was
NOT the squid the yachtsmen encountered. The footage of the real one
swimming was from Japan and the squid did loose part of one of its
tentacles in the process of escaping from the bait.

Unfortunately it is comments like yours where people have
misrepresented / misunderstood what was actually said / seen that
does the real damage. In my own work with endangered species of
molluscs both here in the US and in Australia, simple
misunderstandings from potentially otherwise well meaning people are
the hardest things to correct.

For example: Gardening shows usually have something about how to
control snail and slug pests, they virtually never mention that most
species are potentially beneficial or do not do anything harmful. End
result of this is most people think all types of snail are bad and
should not be protected. Thus when you start working with and trying
to protect an endangered species of snail most peoples initial
reaction is to say why the hell are you trying to save something that
eats or will eat my garden plants etc and is otherwise just a pest.

Stephanie

At 07:58 AM 10/12/2006, you wrote:
>However, I do not believe this squid was alive when
>encountered.  Looks more like whale puke to me.  These gents set
>this up with a dead one.  Just look at all the decomposition and
>even in the photo in the water the thing is missing arms.  It is
>nice they recovered the specimen but it shook no boats.
>
>"Nature" stuff like these films should be condemned.




******************************************************************************
Dr Stephanie A. Clark

Malacologist / Assistant Collections Manager
Chicago Academy of Sciences
Notebaert Nature Museum
4001 North Ravenswood Ave, Suite 201
Chicago, IL 60613 USA
Phone: 1 (773) 477 4295 FAX: 1 (773) 755 5199
Mobile 1 (205) 310 9942
email [log in to unmask]

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