QUEST Season 2 Web Premiere: The Fierce Humboldt Squid
A mysterious sea creature up to 7 feet long, with 10 arms, a sharp beak and a ravenous appetite, has invaded ocean waters off Northern California. Packs of fierce Humboldt Squid attack nearly everything they see, from fish to scuba divers. Marine biologists are working to discover why they’ve headed north from their traditional homes off South America.
If you haven't read it already, see my Producer's Notes blog post for this story for the real scoop on squid.
View the web-exclusive premiere of "The Fierce Humboldt Squid," our first Season 2 QUEST TV story. Season 2 begins on broadcast TV next Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30pm on KQED, Channel 9 in Northern California.
See additional photos of these fearsome leviathans of the deep, including close-up tentacles, beaks and an actual squid necropsy.
Chris Bauer is a Segment Producer for television on QUEST, and is the producer for this story.
Yay! The new season is here!
Too bad, unlike the old episodes it doesn't play on my iPod…
A quick inspection shows that the video track has been changed from H264 Baseline profile level 3 to H264 Main profile level 3.
Hi - thanks for the report, I will review those settings ASAP.
[...] Something mysterious is stirring in the waters of Half-Moon Bay. It's a "web-exclusive premiere" and additional photos of the new KQED [...]
I think that this whole thing is both interesting and scary because no one knows where they came from or why they have come back.They are eating everything and are probably going to eat all the fish. Fish will probably be extinct because of them in the next few years. And if they keep envading waters, reproducing, and getting bigger, thay will be the supreme rulers of the oceans, and probably will move to expand their territory, which means that everyone is probably in danger. It also will no longer be safe to go and swim in the ocean anymore, and this scares me.
Great story, and thank you for doing it. I thought you could have done more with the empty ocean niche angle for why these creatures are doing so well off here. You know, that documentary film, "Empty Ocean, Empty Nets" that got shoved aside by the BBC's "Blue Planet" a few years ago? The growth rate, ultimate size and voraciouness, of chinook salmon comes close to rivaling these squid, but of course we don't have any more of those, and no more rockfish, nor lingcod, nor etc etc etc. I definitely didn't appreciate the inference at the end of your piece about fishermen doing their part of rid the ocean of these fish, lest THESE SQUID rid the ocean of the other fish. Please, please, now and again think beyond climate change as the root of all evil, with now evil embodied, too, in Humboldt squid.