>Giant sea creature baffles Chilean scientists  Wednesday, July 2,
>2003 Posted: 1:32 PM EDT (1732 GMT)  SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) --
>Chilean scientists were baffled on Tuesday by a
>huge, gelatinous sea creature found washed up on the southern Pacific coast
>and were seeking international help identifying the mystery
>specimen.   The dead creature was mistaken for a beached whale when
>first reported about
>a week ago, but experts who went to see it said the 40-foot-long (12-meter)
>mass of decomposing lumpy grey flesh apparently was an invertebrate.
>"We'd never before seen such a strange specimen, We don't know if it
>might
>be a giant squid that is missing some of its parts or maybe it's a new
>species," said Elsa Cabrera, director of the Center for Cetacean
>Conservation in Santiago.   Photographs showed a round leathery
>substance like a mammoth jelly fish,
>about as long as a school bus.   Giant squid live at a depth of
>9,500 feet (3,000 meters) and only rise to
>the surface when they die. Specimens have been known to be as long as 60
>feet (18 meters).   There was speculation that the mass might be a
>whale skin, but Cabrera said
>it was too big and did not have the right texture or smell.
>Cabrera said she was contacting Chilean and international
>organizations in
>the hope that they could help shed some light on the find.

Sorry to say, the thing in the image DOES look like a whale (and I
have been involved in the butchering of several beached whales for
their skeletons).

The quotes given do not sound like those of scientists.
--
Andrew Grebneff
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