Re: [OT] Navy releases photos of U.S.S. San Francisco

From: Peter Stickney (p-stickney_at_Mineshaft.local)
Date: 01/30/05 

Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:28:34 -0800

In article <10vp27kh8n7he6a@corp.supernews.com>,
        Pat Flannery <flanner@daktel.com> writes:
>
>
> Scott Lowther wrote:
>
>>>
>>>
>> Nor with a giant squid attached to it, as was the case with the USS
>> Stein.
>
>
> You can see just how that happened too, can't you? Squid gets bumped by
> some big rounded thing that's emitting acoustic waves, figures it's a
> sperm whale's head, and freaks out.
> The species was probably a big Moroteuthis:
> http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/race/media/photo_gallery/photos/Molluscs/Cephlapoda/sqdbrnco.jpg
> given where the incident occurred (off San Diego).
> Moroteuthis has claws instead of suction cups on its two long tentacles,
> and some were found in the covering of the sonar dome.
> If you think getting grabbed by these- with their ring of teeth around
> the outside- would be bad:
> http://www.tonmo.com/images/content/facts-fig2.jpg
> Try these on for size: http://www.tonmo.com/images/content/facts-fig3.jpg
> http://www.tonmo.com/images/content/facts-fig4.jpg
> These are off of what could be the biggest squids on Earth:
> http://www.tonmo.com/science/public/giantsquidfacts.php
> No one is quite sure if a giant squid is the answer though; a scientist
> who saw the things taken out of the sonar dome's covering said she
> thought they resembled the dentricles that cover the body of a large ray
> more than the hooks of a large squid. So maybe the destroyer struck a
> Manta Ray instead of a squid.

An addition to the list of Possible Submarine Predators:
The Cookie Cutter Shark:
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/ibrasil.htm

A most fascinating beast - among other tings, it glows in the dark,
and seems to hunk by luring larger predators into range by masking
itself as a Sardine.
While they're more a hazard to the Sonar Dome than to the boat itself,
you've got to admire the chutzpah of an 18" (50cm) shark taking on a
400' (125m) Steel Ocean Behemoth.
At least the Swordfish that speared Alvin looked like it had a chance.

(Hmm. since a Megalodon was/possibly is a 100' Great White, just think
of what a 50' Cookie Cutter could do. I think I'll get on the horn to
Scaramanga and No, CIvile Engineers, to see about enlarging teh
Aquarium)

I've also noted that some of the Giant Squid references are breaking
them down still further, into the Giant Squid and Colossal Squid
categories.

This is beginning to sound like a side-piece to John Ringo & Devid
Weber's "March" series ("March Upcountry", "March to the Sea", "March to
the Stars", & soon, "We Few") which involves a recipe for Roast
Suckling Damnbeast. The Mardukan Damnbeast is a large predator,
notoriously difficult to winkle out of its underground lair.
(Just about everything on Marduke is a predator)
The only known predator (Other than Man) for the Damnbeast is the
HOLYSHITBEAAST.
http://www.scifidimensions.com/Mar01/damnbeast.htm 

-- 
Pete Stickney			
p-stickney@nospam.adelphia.net
Without data, all you have are opinions