Travelers craving encounters with the world's weirdest wildlife need look no further than the Dosidicus gigas, otherwise known as the Humboldt or "red demon" giant squid. Seven feet long, 150-plus pounds and 70,000 razor sharp teeth, the red demon is the newest thrill for seekers of high-adrenalin diving adventures.
Sea Wolves Unlimited, a San Diego-based adventure firm, has pioneered the squid dive, after several years of success with great white shark dive encounters. "The animal has three hearts, blue blood, eight arms, two tentacles and 70,000 teeth," says Scott Cassell, team leader for Sea Wolves. "Even though you are wearing chain mail armor, its beak can snap a hand, arm or foot off if you're not careful. Diving with the giant squid is not for novices."
Even experienced divers attend "squid school" for several days before actually going head to tentacles with the mysterious sea monster, best known for its representation in films like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where it's always seen doing battle with white whales or submarines.
"The thrill of diving with the real creatures is the unpredictability of the animal," says diver/photographer Ivo Kocherscheidt. "He is big, clever and aggressive. And you just don't know what he's going to do."
"They think and evaluate conditions as they change," Kocherscheidt adds. "We are going into new territory here. The squid is one of the few problem-solving animals in the sea and that's why they are dangerous."
Although giant squid are big, fast (among the fastest swimmers in the sea), smart and good at sizing up a diver at close range, they enjoy relatively short life spans (about one year).
"If the Humboldt lived about 20 years longer, they'd be hunting us down there," says Cassell.
For more information on diving with the red demon, log on to www.sharkdiver.com, where you can also book diving trips with great white sharks, as well as a deep-sea submarine journey that rivals the images of 20,000 Leagues and doesn't use plastic models either.
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