22-06-2004, 08:49 PM
I came across an interesting article (by Errol Kiong) concerning the work of a zoologist and conservationist named Dr. Steve O'Shea (nased at Auckland University in New Zealand).
[url="http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2941259a7693,00.html"]http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2941259a7693,00.html[/url]
I picked up a few interesting facts:
1) Giant squid do not attack whales. Giant squid eat small fish and other squid. The female grows to a total length of 13 metres while the male reaches up to 10 metres.
2) New Zealand has 96 species of squid and 42 species of octopus in its waters, the highest diversity count in the world.
3) Five octopus species discovered in NZ in 1999 are already extinct, he says, solely because of deep sea bottom trawling.
4) A paper in 1967 found that a sperm whale's diet comprised 37 per cent of commercial fish species like orange roughy and hoki. Today, says Dr O'Shea, the whale eats almost exclusively squid, chomping down between 800 and 1000 a day because of fish scarcity.
5) If squid numbers fall then sperm whales that feed on them may be wiped out.
[url="http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2941259a7693,00.html"]http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2941259a7693,00.html[/url]
I picked up a few interesting facts:
1) Giant squid do not attack whales. Giant squid eat small fish and other squid. The female grows to a total length of 13 metres while the male reaches up to 10 metres.
2) New Zealand has 96 species of squid and 42 species of octopus in its waters, the highest diversity count in the world.
3) Five octopus species discovered in NZ in 1999 are already extinct, he says, solely because of deep sea bottom trawling.
4) A paper in 1967 found that a sperm whale's diet comprised 37 per cent of commercial fish species like orange roughy and hoki. Today, says Dr O'Shea, the whale eats almost exclusively squid, chomping down between 800 and 1000 a day because of fish scarcity.
5) If squid numbers fall then sperm whales that feed on them may be wiped out.