In Search of Giant Squid

Since its initial splash in 2004, In Search of Giant Squid has been one of our most popular exhibitions. Why shouldn't it be? It's a fascinating topic that gets to the very core of your inner explorer--a veritable needle-in-the-haystack search for a real-life sea monster.

Surrounded by the kind of lore usually reserved for the Lochness Monster, Big Foot, and the Tasmanian Tiger, the giant squid is one of the last great mysteries in the natural world. In fact, nobody had ever filmed a live giant squid in the wild until September 2004, when a crew off the coast of the Ogasawara Islands near Japan shot some unbelievable footage of a squid trying to escape a carefully baited jig.

Since then, we've asked exhibition visitors, "How would you catch a giant squid?" And we've received some fairly erudite ideas from kids across the country, especially in Seattle (exhibited at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture). Here are few clever theories:

• "I think you should grow a baby squid, and when I grow up I’ll raise baby squid too."
• "You need to catch a whole bunch of shrimp and put them in a giant net. Then put it in the ocean and put a water camera above the net."
• "Have you considered looking the giant squids with a REALLY big magnifying glass? I think it might help."
• "I think you should try cloning some squid so that you don’t have to try to find them out in the ocean."
• "We could create a sonar machine powerful enough to divide the ocean into segments. Then using a machine we could project sonar waves over the segments to find animals and objects within the sonar area."

Of course, there were many kids who thought that cookies and chocolate cake were the way to go--sure to work for the sugar-addicted giant squid. Others simply wrote adoring letters to the exhibition curator, Dr. Clyde Roper, who according to many is the closest thing out there to an oceanic Indiana Jones.

Keep those ideas coming! With your help, Dr. Roper might just find his own squid to travel with the exhibition.

Comments

[Gary McDermot]

My daughter said that she would catch a giant squid by using a giant net -- but she would be very careful not to hurt anyone.