Reply #51: After reading the second article I posted a link for, I'd be scared, too.

[highplainsdem]

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/issues/Issue.03-10-2005/cover/Article.cover_story

“Diving with these squid is like diving in a barroom brawl,” Cassell says. “I’ve had my eardrum ruptured by getting dragged down from 45 feet to 75 feet; I’ve had my right arm dislocated by a squid grabbing my camera and yanking it; I’ve had 25 stitches from a particularly bad bite on my leg; and I’ve been smashed on the face more times than I can remember because they always seem to go for the camera when I’m looking through it.”

The most notorious Humboldt squid story involves Alex Kirstich, a National Geographic videographer working at night in the Sea of Cortez. Kirstich was shooting a school of five-foot Humboldt squid 30 feet below the surface when he was “mugged” by three squid and gang-dragged down to a depth of 70 feet.

“They took his camera, his necklace, his dive computer and gave him some nice bites around the back of his neck,” Cassell says.

Although Kirstich survived the attack, it was an encounter that stayed with him until his recent death from cancer, according to Cassell. “Every time he told that story you could see the fear.”