Scuba.com Reader- Peter (aka Aquaman) shares his first-hand experience of coming face to face with one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep- The Giant Squid… And remember if you’ve got an amazing story or experience of your own to share, you can e-mail us at aquaviews@gmail.com and to see it featured here.
Many years ago I saw several large squid off Green Cape south of Eden, New South Wales, Australia. I have been a diver for over 50 years, 30 years professional abalone diver from Lakes Entrance to Coffs Harbour and since 1992 to today still an active amateur diver also working with different underwater research divers and groups since 1992 for a period of 10 years. I have dived to depths of 198 ft deep and many depths between this also spent several years in the 1960’s hunting sharks and catching crayfish underwater for a living. So plenty of opportunity to observe marine species.
At the time of the sighting unusual weather conditions prevailed.
Early in the morning of said day a thick sea mist rolled in, as all that week we had experienced hot conditions and the water was quite warm. A cool breeze was blowing across the surface of the ocean. We set off from Eden in my boat, which is a 30 ft Timber Cruiser. We could clearly see all around us with the Radar and observe our position on the GPS. As we crossed the bay we observed on the radar a large echo from a 50,000-ton Japanese Wood Chip Boat entering the bay. Woodchips are exported from Eden (Australia) to Japan.
As we progressed across the bay I noticed another smaller echo heading rapidly for the chip boat, this was a shark cat abalone boat as portrayed by the classic secondary echo from the rooster tail wash or wake bar echo’s. We noticed it seemed to head straight into the chip boats echo then disappear.
A couple of days later the deck hand from the shark cat told us his boss had decided to go out diving that day in the dense fog and they nearly rammed the side of the chip boat.
On the south side of Twofold Bay near Eden is a woodchip mill that turns native forest timber into woodchips to be exported by ship to Japan for use in paper manufacturing.
We proceeded down the coast to Green Cape some 18 miles south of Eden where I anchored in the fog just a few yards offshore. Usually most Sea mist disappears by 10 am but this particular day it did not clear until 3 PM. A sea swell started to build so at about 4 in the afternoon I moved the boat offshore and anchored in about 80 ft of water.
I dived in and pulled myself down the anchor rope, visibility was clear to murky with much jelly blubber and sediment in the water. The first 40 ft was quite warm then I struck cold layer of water about 16 degrees C the unusual thing I noticed is that the current was flowing from North to South which that close to Green Cape traditionally and usually run from South to North inshore along the coast, also one would expect a current flowing from a Northerly direction would contain warmer waters instead of cold. As I swam deeper I came back into warmer water. I found a drop off from the “barren’s” reef edge onto sand and started to gather abalone.
After about 10 minutes or so I was in the process of starting to swim out from the edge of the reef across the sand to deeper water to search for more reef. Upon looking towards the surface it was then that I saw the squid. I literally froze with fear. I could see about four or five of them in about 60 ft deep, which would put them in the cooler layer of water flowing in a southerly direction. The largest was about 35 to 40 ft long including a couple of longer thinner tentacles protruding out of the main group of thicker tentacles. The smaller of these squid were about 14 or 15 foot long. Further into the gloom to the south I could dimly see another half dozen dim shapes just drifting along with the current.
Normally Giant squid are usually down thousands of feet in the pitch black. They can just hang motionless as their body contains pockets of ammonia that help them stabilize buoyancy.
They can also luminesce their eye flashing blue and red. This attracts in prey, which they quickly seize with their massive tentacles. I suppose what had happened with the unusual counter clockwise current it had swept them up from their underwater domain from canyons thousands of feet deep.
I do not know how long I observed them but in the end I slowly pulled myself along the diving hose back to the boat.
By this time it was starting to get dark so we lifted the anchor, put the boat on autopilot and headed home to Eden, The sky went quite dark and it started to rain, then I noticed on the radar about six miles out to sea two very intense echo’s on the radar screen. I would estimate them about 60 ft in diameter and about quarter of a mile apart. Suddenly the came together and formed a cigar shaped echo across the radar screen.
As the radar swept around the cigar shaped echo jumped across the screen towards us. Because of the strange weather conditions that day I imagined the two intense echoes might have been two Waterspouts and that they had collapsed into a mini tidal wave that was bearing down on us quite rapidly. I made a fast decision and told my deck hand to secure the forward anchor hatch and throw anything loose down into the fore part of my boat, along with the blankets, pillows and bedding. I thought we would head full speed towards the onrushing wave and just before it struck both of us would dive into the fore part of my boat, and maybe survive the impact.
As the echo neared my vessel I peered out into the gloom and heard a loud rushing noise. I sighted what I thought was a long wall of white water rushing towards us, it simply turned out to be an intense wall of rain chopping up the water. I did not have time to turn into it and as it struck the boat like a solid fist the whole vessel heeled over.
Then we were in the midst of the storm there was water everywhere, Lightning was striking the water around the boat and all the electrical equipment on the boat went haywire. The motor kept running being diesel powered but the compass spun around and all other equipment failed. The chap who was with me called out ‘look at the rails’ and I noticed the stainless handrails were emitting a blue glow and I looked up at the steel radar tower and metal flying bridge and they were also emitting the same blue glow.
Within a couple of minutes we came out of the storm and the sea calmed down to a long rolling swell and the skies cleared and the stars were visible. We looked to the south of us and saw the storm like a mini cloud at sea level with angry orange flashes within it.
The next day a low pressure trough came into the state bringing large rough seas and some flooding occurred for about four or five day’s.
Another such Giant Squid Encouter I’ve heard of:
A Brisbane based company WBM that I assisted with marine research Monitoring the marine environment around the construction of the Eden Naval Wharf, that have a branch in the US told me of two divers diving during the night, below them water, hundreds of fathoms of deep water.
One diver down at about 90 ft and the other another 30 ft below him in over 120 ft. Both were collecting marine specimens with use of torches and catcher equipment.
Suddenly the diver in 90 ft looked down as his diving buddy’s torchlight suddenly started to wave violently around and along with his mate disappears into the depths.
Later as his diving buddy rapidly surfaced and told him he had been grabbed by a large squid and quickly taken down to over 350 ft then released unhurt, and luckily for him had made it back to the surface.
– Peter (Aquaman)
