Pack of hungry squid diver's worst nightmare

[ShakaZulu]

http://209.242.151.5/seawolves/dancingwithdemons.wmv

Tom Stienstra
The most horrifying vision for a scuba diver is not the silent charge of a 20-foot great white shark.

No, it gets worse than that.

The ultimate nightmare of the deep is to encounter a pack of Humboldt squid and then face being devoured in a series of softball-chunk sized bites as they compete for each scrap.

These giant squid reach six feet and 180 pounds, armed with sucker discs with 25,000 to 60,000 teeth, as detailed in a Chronicle story a year ago (archived at sfgate.com). They have 10 tentacles, including two long tentacles they use to pull their prey in to their razor-sharp beaks. They school in roaming hordes and then gang up to swarm in feeding frenzies. When set off, they will even eat each other and anything else in their path.

They have returned for a second straight year off the Bay Area coast this winter, roaming the marine seamounts, often 400 to 2,000 feet deep.

A report has been confirmed that that a group called Seawolves Unlimited has not only led dives amid the Humboldt squid, but has filmed the encounters and attacks.

"In order to safely dive with the Humboldt squid, they use diver protection platforms and wear armored wet suits," said Craig Buttner, who previewed the film.

At one point, you can see squid try to eat a scuba diver, but are repelled when they clasp onto the armor, Buttner said.

The 45-minute video now in post-production will be shown for the first time at a free seminar called "Dancing With The Demons." The event is scheduled March 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Millbrae, 10 minutes south of the San Francisco Airport, at the New Vision United Methodist Church at 450 Chadbourne.

Buttner says it's a clear, high resolution copy shot in the crystal waters in the Sea of Cortez. I'll be getting a copy as soon as available to provide a synopsis.

The show is sponsored by the Northern California Underwater Photographic Society. Info, directions and underwater pics at ncups.org.

Thanks Sean........

 

[ShakaZulu]

Nobody commenting on this?

 

[Hank49]

Unreal video. Did the divers offer food?

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

That's pretty terrifying. If something like that happened to me, I might end up dying, but I would ventilate as many of them as I could with my dive knife. There would be a lot of handicapped squid by the time I got done.

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

Mmmmm....calamari!

Dave (aka "Squirt")

 

[justleesa]

wow, glad we done have them around here!! ...I know nothing about Humbolt squid, do they flash colors like that or was that a lighting thing?

 

[MSilvia]

I saw a documentary about the Humboldt squid recently, and they found that their reputation for agression, while valid, largely stems from interactions divers have had with them in the presence of fishing fleets. Absent that kind of stimulus, their encounters with Humbolds (in one case deeper than the fleet fishes, and in another case when the squid were feeding on krill offshore) showed them to be curious and intelligent... not that that means they don't have thousands of tooth-ringed suckers, or that they don't attack divers. Both are absolutely true.

One diver in the documentary I saw recounted a "cage dive" he did with humboldts. Apparently, the squid kept some distance from them at first, and just watched to get a sense of what was going on. As they became more bold however, one of the squid who had witnessed the divers entering the cage came over and began examining and manipulating the latch on the door... presumably trying to figure out how to open it like he'd seen the people do. Another dive described a humboldt squid picking her pocket and making off with some camera gear.

The popular picture we've painted of them is similar to what we'd think of sharks if we'd only ever studied them in chum-filled waters full of injured fish... not that thinking of the squid as both intelligent and having the potential for being brutally violent puts the mind at ease.

The big behavior-observing lesson I got from the show was this: When humboldt squid flash red and white, it's a sign of aggression. When they flash grey and white, it's a sign they're curious and non-agressive. The name Diablo Rojo seems well deserved... if you see a red humboldt squid, look out.

 

[MSilvia]

I know nothing about Humbolt squid, do they flash colors like that or was that a lighting thing?

They do flash like that. Like all cephalopods (or at least all I'm familiar with), squid have chromatophores, which are pigment cells that can be dilated or contracted in order to effect color changes.

 

[MtnDiver]

The "Pirates of the Carribean" theme was a nice touch.

 

[dlndavid]

Them Some Big Suckers.