Monday, June 17, 2013

TED Talks – Edith Widder: How We Found the Giant Squid


Rating – *****

The title says it all: This speaker and her teammates lured in, and captured footage of, a giant squid. For those not in the know, the giant squid it as long as a 2-story house is tall, and has rarely been seen by the human eye. So for this team to capture six encounters with giant squids is incredible.

The team did this by creating a lure that emitted a light similar to the light made by a certain deep-sea jellyfish as a distress cal. The jellyfish emits this distress call in the hopes that a larger animal will be attracted to the light, and will attack the animal trying to eat the jellyfish.  The submersible holding the cameras did not have motors, as those could have made enough noise to scare away any curious squid. So with the lure in place, all the team had to do was wait for a squid to take the bait. And several squid did, giving the team some incredible footage.

 This TED Talk was amazing not because of the footage, but also because it drives home the point that we know very little about the animals that live beneath the surface of the oceans. This talk was absolutely incredible, and I watched the footage of the giant squids over and over because it was so amazing.

“Edith Widder: How We Found the Giant Squid.” TED. 2013. Web. 17 Jun. 2013. http://www.ted.com/talks/edith_widder_how_we_found_the_giant_squid.html

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