For four years, Clyde Roper has sailed the globe in search of one very special sea monster. The monster is a giant squid 20 metres long, weighing half a tonne, with eyes the size of dinner plates. Roper is a world-renowned squid specialist with the Smithsonian Institution鈥檚 Department of Invertebrate Biology, but he鈥檚 yet to see a live giant squid. Twice he has led a team to a likely spot off New Zealand鈥檚 South Island, but despite state-of-the-art submersibles and smart techniques, Architeuthis has been conspicuous by its absence. Jonathan Knight wondered if Roper was afraid of turning into Captain Ahab鈥�
What keeps you looking despite all the failures?
I鈥檝e failed to find a giant squid in its natural habitat, but I haven鈥檛 failed to generate interest in the giant squid. I use it as an icon to introduce people to the deep sea. It鈥檚 an ecosystem that we know so very little about, so it behoves us to learn more about the creatures that live there. If it鈥檚 a giant squid, fine. If not, then it鈥檚 the giant squid鈥檚 neighbours such as the sperm whale.
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So why pick the giant squid?
Size is a major factor. These are the largest invertebrates ever to have lived on Earth, yet they still elude us. There wasn鈥檛 much known about these animals, but there was a huge literature-mostly myths and untruths. I鈥檝e worked on cephalopods long enough to gain a great deal of respect for them. I thought it wasn鈥檛 right to say that they were vicious and vindictive, and all those human attributes from the sea stories. So I vowed that if I ever had the opportunity to study them, I would tell the truth about their nature.
You don鈥檛 believe those sailors鈥� tales, then . . .
Basically, no. If you find a giant squid at the surface, it鈥檚 usually associated with its death. So it鈥檚 difficult to imagine giant squid rearing up into the rigging of a sailing ship and hauling it over. Having said that, I can imagine that if a whaling rowboat happened by when a giant squid was brought to the surface by a sperm whale, and the whale was harpooned, or something happened so that the squid was freed, it might writhe, perhaps even wrap its tentacles around the boat. I can鈥檛 imagine that being an act of aggression. Sailors were at sea for a long time, and many of them were exceedingly superstitious. What they may have seen was a dead or nearly dead giant squid floating. By the time they landed, that had been built up to, 鈥淕olly, what could that squid do if it attacked the ship.鈥� The first place they went on shore was the alehouse鈥�
You may not have found a giant squid but you have tasted one鈥�
I was over in a student鈥檚 house in Newfoundland, and he and his wife prepared 12 different dishes of local squid, all of them delicious. We got talking about giant squid, and I said, 鈥淚 wonder what it tastes like.鈥� And the student said, 鈥淚鈥檝e got a piece in the freezer.鈥� So we prepared it. We didn鈥檛 add garlic or seasonings, and I offered it around, but there weren鈥檛 any takers. They all said, 鈥淚t was your idea, you鈥檝e got to try it.鈥� It was absolutely awful. Very, very bitter. If I hadn鈥檛 been in polite company I鈥檇 have spat it out.
But the reason that mouthful was so unpleasant turns out to be crucial in understanding giant squid . . .
If it wasn鈥檛 for the fact that squid concentrate ammonium ions in their tissues, we might not have had any specimens until the past couple of decades because they live so far down. Since ammonium chloride is lighter than seawater, many squid concentrate it in their muscles to control their buoyancy. So when they die, they鈥檒l be sufficiently buoyant to float to the surface and get washed ashore with the current.
How do we know that squid live so far down if we鈥檝e never seen them in their natural habitat?
Fortunately, there are a couple of pieces of information. For one thing, sperm whales feed on giant squid-and those sperm whales normally feed below a couple of hundred metres, occasionally down to a thousand metres. The deepest that I鈥檓 aware of is about 2000 metres. And now specimens have shown up in the deep-sea fishing nets, the orange roughy and hoki nets, which also trawl from a couple of hundred metres right down to a thousand metres.
What do giant squid eat?
It looks as though they feed on hoki, which is very abundant in New Zealand鈥檚 waters, and they may eat orange roughy. They also like other kinds of squid. They know what鈥檚 good-they eat calamari.
Given that you鈥檝e never seen them, can you make a guess about the way they mate?
Yes, by comparing their anatomy with shallow-water squid. The parts are quite similar. The females have ovaries around the rear end of the body, near where the tentacles emerge. When they are sexually mature, the ovaries become swollen with millions of eggs. The males produce sperm, and in all the cephalopods we know about the males produce spermatophores-cylinders into which they pack millions of sperm cells. When mating takes place, the male transfers the spermatophores to the female. The spermatophores are attached to the females either inside the mantle cavity or around the mantle opening, or even around the eye or the mouth in some species. We won鈥檛 know exactly where the giant squid attach their spermatophores until we see them in action.
How are the young born?
We don鈥檛 have any idea what an Architeuthis female does, whether she lays an egg mass or lays each egg individually. In any case, the female is capable of laying several million eggs. Unlike other molluscs and many invertebrates, cephalopods don鈥檛 go through the fancy stages of ciliated cells that metamorphose into the adult. You can look in the egg and see a miniature squid.
When you think about squid, you think ink. Do you think the giant squid has ink?
Yes. But we don鈥檛 know whether the ink is luminescent or not. Many deep-sea squid have luminescent ink. They cultivate luminescent bacteria in their ink glands. When they force the ink out, bacteria are shot out as well, and the oxygen in the seawater makes them luminesce. So instead of having a black ink blot that nobody sees, you have a glowing blot which serves the same purpose as the black ink blot does in shallow water.
Do the eyes of a giant squid glow?
In some deep-sea species the eyes glow. But to date, no photophores have ever been discovered or described in giant squid. I won鈥檛 say that they can鈥檛 have photophores, but it鈥檚 hard to say.
How many giant squid are there?
It鈥檚 extremely difficult to make estimates even of species of squid that we know a lot about. Knowing very little about the biology and distribution of the giant squid, it鈥檚 even more difficult. But I suspect that it鈥檚 not rare in its natural habitat. I think there are three species around the world, and they are found in all oceans-not uniformly, of course. I鈥檇 say there are probably millions.
So why are they so hard to find?
Up to a couple of years ago, we were searching for a needle in a haystack because we didn鈥檛 know what kind of habitat they lived in. It鈥檚 less daunting now. We have more information on their habitat since they have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales and we know where sperm whales live. So they鈥檙e hard to find because they鈥檙e in habitats that humans very seldom get to. The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on the planet-the sea has over 99 per cent of all the space where life can exist. Over the past 40 years, the total area of the ocean bottom sample covered by research submersibles is less than 150 square kilometres.
Why was Kaikoura Canyon off New Zealand鈥檚 South Island a good place to start searching?
We don鈥檛 know where giant squid live, so who does? Sperm whales that鈥檚 who-and New Zealand is full of sperm whales. My idea was to follow the whales to the haunts of the giant squid. And we had other information, such as records of where animals had been found floating at the surface or where they had been washed ashore, or caught in nets. Unfortunately, we didn鈥檛 find any.
When will the next expedition be?
I don鈥檛 know. I certainly hope that something will happen, because I really believe that we can find a living giant squid in its natural habitat. The more time we spend in the water the greater our chances of finding this magnificent and elusive beast. But I鈥檓 no longer going to be a fundraiser to achieve that.
You鈥檝e searched using submersibles. Are there other strategies?
Yes, we mounted a camera on a sperm whale in the first expedition with National Geographic in 1997. It was called the Crittercam, a camera designed to attach to animals such as sharks, seals and sea turtles with a suction cup. The data was magnificent. We didn鈥檛 get any images of giant squid nor of feeding sperm whales, but we did learn an awful lot about the whale鈥檚 diving behaviour, and about its socialisation at those depths.
That was bad luck not to find the squid. Is it worth trying again?
It鈥檚 very labour-intensive. It might be worth trying again. But it鈥檚 not the easiest thing to paddle up to within arm鈥檚 length of a 50 or 60-tonne animal in a kayak to put on a camera. And while most of the whales these days seem not to be all that skittish, with one little flick of the tail they鈥檙e able to propel themselves well away. They鈥檙e not especially frightened, it鈥檚 just that they don鈥檛 want whatever this thing is coming up around their head.
If you find one giant squid, will it get easier to find more?
Yes. Just think about what we鈥檒l learn the first time we see a giant squid in its natural habitat. We鈥檒l know its depth-is it on the bottom, just above the bottom, tens of metres above the bottom, or halfway to the surface? Is the animal alone or with a group? How does it swim? Is its head hanging down or up or is it horizontal? Is it swimming forcefully? Is it using its fins? Give me 15 seconds and I鈥檒l tell you a heck of a lot about the biology, distribution and behaviour of the animal. A few minutes and I鈥檒l tell you all those things that we鈥檝e talked about. It would be extraordinarily wonderful to see the animal feeding or mating.
Do you think someone else might beat you to it?
Every once in a while I hear of folk who say they are going to find the giant squid. I would guess at this point a half a dozen individuals or groups would like to find one. I take that as a huge compliment.
Jean-Michel Cousteau is said to be among them. If his team found one, would you throw in the towel?
Well, first I would celebrate with them because it would be an absolutely marvellous achievement. Of course the edge would seem to be off a bit, but for me it would be an additional whetting of the appetite. Now we would know where they are, and presumably if we went back and looked in the same place, we would run into more. There is more to be learned than can be gleaned from one sighting.