He’s A Slippery Devil
A great article by David Grann in The New Yorker last week details the efforts of a New Zealand scientist to capture a giant squid, “the sea’s most elusive creature.”
If you hadn’t paying attention to les affaires de la mer, you might not know that the fifty-foot long squid is a real creature, not one just imagined by Jules Verne, and many examples of which have been recovered after washing up on shore or from encounters at sea.
Grann’s article is a vivid affair, and certainly the somewhat zany quality of his guide, Dr. Steve O’Shea, helps enliven the story. Really though, as you read the article, it’s the thought of encountering one of these beasts when it’s angry that puts the imagination to work. Arms thicker than human legs, covered in jagged suction cups. A jaw strong enough to make chowder out of bone. Heck, nevermind the fifty-footer — I didn’t realize that the eight-foot-long “jumbo squid” is a relatively common creature in the ocean. Think about putting up your dukes against one of those next time you sit down to a tame plate of calamari.
Previously: Gunkanjima, the Abandoned Island
Subsequently: Draw Thyself
Comments