First With Giant Squids? - Not So Fast Brady Barr

Brady Barr, show host extraordinaire, National Geographics resident Herpetologist, winner of the Wild Animal Show Host Hall of Fame Bite Moment (see video, no really see it).

You'll also remember Brady from last year with what looked to be a dead Tiger shark, and an image touted to be Brady swimming with the animal. Except the animal was tied by the tail hanging nose down in the water and Brady's bubbles were heading towards the surface.

These days Brady and National Geographic are claiming to be the first ever team to place a camera on a Giant Humboldt Squid in the Sea of Cortez, unfortunately this whopper of a claim like so many of Brady Barrs animal stunts is 100% false.

Brady Barr and his team are, simply put, liars.

The actual first ever camera on a squid moment goes to Scott Cassell who was also the first to work with these incredible animals several years ago, and who is the go to source for most of the squid productions in the region. He and his team were the first to develop cameras on squids and the first to document deep water squid behaviour in the region.

Just setting the record straight for anyone in production who cares to know. Now on to Brady and another magical moment with wild animals.

Sea of Cortez - Predator Nursery

As word slowly leaks out of the Sea of Cortez, what started as a hypothesis, has now become a full blown four alarm eco disaster.

The oceans have a new super predator that has migrated into the top of the food chain. Where once tuna and sharks selectively culled, these animals indiscriminately destroy everything in their path. This is a prime example of predator loss upsetting the natural balance of our oceans and it is happening right now.

From RTSea Productions and the RTSea Blog:

Earthquakes and Cephalopods

When you live in California as we do two things are certain, taxes and earthquakes. Last weeks 4.0 off the coast of La Lolla reminded us of a third thing...giant squids:

Cephelapod Use #22 - Brain Booster

Depending who you speak with - and we speak with absolutely everyone, rising squid populations are responsible for fisheries collapses worldwide.

The theory goes something like this:

Sharks (who eat squids) are being killed off leaving an open predatory niche in the worlds oceans. Unfortunately squids reproduce at the rate of millions and without sharks to control populations, swarms of these critters are taking over delicate feeding chains decimating fish stocks...or so this theory goes.

We submit to this theory, mainly because the folks behind it are smarter then we are. So it is with little surprise that researchers at the Council of Agriculture’s Fisheries Research Institute in Taipei have found the brain boosting compound PL-DHA (phospholipid docosahexaenoic acid) in squid skins.

Huzzah!

If you want to eradicate anything commercially from the ocean, you need to first come up a with a financial reason to do so, thank you researcher guys in Taipei. Now we can all be a bit smarter while doing the job sharks used to do before we killed them all off...back in our dumber days that is.

Sea of Cortez - Production Adventure

Good friend Captain Greg Grivetto of Horizon Charters is on another eco adventure and this time in the company of the BBC as they film their much acclaimed series, “Last Chance to See”. Biologist, naturalist, writer - Mark Carwardine and esteemed actor Stephen Fry host this series and will be aboard as we search for blue, sperm and humpback whales:

For the next two weeks he'll be sending us his "notes from the field":

After months of preparation we've departed San Diego for what will prove to be a grand Sea of Cortez adventure!. Over the next two weeks we will traverse the entire length of the Baja peninsula twice and in between will enjoy the company of the XXX as they film a segment for their much acclaimed series, "Last Chance to See". Biologist, naturalist, writer -Mark Carwardine and esteemed actor Stephan Fry host this series and will be aboard as we search for blue, sperm and humpback whales within the Sea of Cortez.

If that doesn't prove to be exciting enough we will also go searching for the endemic Santa Catalina Island rattle-less rattlesnake and hope to have the opportunity to venture into the Sea of Cortez's briny blue to experience the magnificent Humboldt squid off Santa Rosalia with Scott Cassel. The crew and I are pumped and ready to say the least!

I will do my damnedest to provide you with colorful commentary that will pull you away from the day to day grind and into the Sea of Cortez. We'd like you all to be with us, but since that is not possible I'll take copious amounts of photos for display upon our return on our new Facebook site. As I find time I will email photos to my better half so that she may post them in advance of our return.

As I write, we are 70 miles south of San Diego, 10 miles south of Ensenada. Today's encounters have found us sharing the ocean with Pacific gray whales, blue whales, common and Pacific white-sided dolphin. As the sun set into the Pacific we passed our final cetacean of the day that fittingly fluked just off our starboard beam.

We're looking at a restful evening on following seas and will be back on tomorrow with reports from Baja California's ocean oasis!

Until manana,
Capitan Greg