Hi friends, hope your all well and apologies if I have not visited your blogs of late, but I can assure you I have been trying to. I do have a day off today so I will make an effort.
I'm taking some of this time off to tell you about a date I had a while back...
My work, which which I wont divulge upon in detail, is is art related, sometimes it takes me to some interesting places for research purposes. A little while ago I was granted permission by the head curator of marine biology at London's Natural History Museum to take a rare close look at a fascinating creature. The creature we today call Giant Squid. The same creature that gave birth to the legend of the Kraken.
My Date with the Kraken
After having adorned myself with a white lab coat, I met with Carmen the head curator at the reception of the facility. After some quintessentially English pleasantries, she lead me onto a open lift that descended into the depths of the Darwin Centre. That's the name of the large research facility that's connected to the back of the Natural History Museum. She told me en route to the "Tank Room" that the facility had cost many millions pounds to make, and that it required unprecedented global cooperation. She added that it housed some of the worlds most rarest specimens. including many bizarre creatures like the one I was about to see. She told me that many creatures the facility had are so rare and live in environments so extreme that humans never ever come across them, and that they were in effect aliens. It was then that felt like a intrepid explorer as the lift descended through the floors.
Once we had hit the bottom, with a gentle judder, I was then lead through a series of temperature controlled corridors and rooms with security doors which seemed straight out of Star Trek. The swooshing sound they made as they opened was very cool. I had never thought s**t like this existed for real. I was pleasantly and secretly surprised..
As we made our way to the Tank Room we passed many rooms specimen room, huge rooms, dedicated to a wide array of land animals. Some were preserved in fluid, while others, which were clearly a lot older, had been stuffed many years previously. Carmen kindly switched the lights on as we walked through. She showed me around slowly and was happy to pass on her knowledge, despite the fact she was no expert due to land creatures not being her field.
There were a lot of WTF moments, I saw stuff I had no idea existed. it dawned on me then how amazing this planet must be if there are so many creatures people still have no idea about. I would love to be able to show pics of what I saw, but unfortunately I didn't have permission to take photo's of those specimens, and I did not want to risk not being able to return one day for more research.
It was certainly quite a macabre scene, I imagine it would have upset some people to bare witness to it.. I adore nature and understand the quest to understand it is vital to our existance and the animals that survive today. As a result, I have no problem with it. Although I will admit to feeling queasy at times.
We finally came to the doors of the Tank Room. I looked above and noticed an odd looking rail that ran beyond the door. I naturally wondered what that was for, so asked. Carmen replied, "you'll see.." she pressed her finger upon the touch pad and the doors swooshed open. I was immediately struck with a revolting stench of chemicals merged with what can only cleanly decribed as a fishy smell : /. I looked around the room in peering into the jars in astonishment as I stood at the door, not having moved one inch.
At the end of the room there was a very large tank with the Giant Squid inside, I was taken back by it's sheer size. I walked towards it and around it in wonder of it... It was like that scene in Aliens when they come across the face huggers in those specimen jars lol. I told her it was bigger than I thought, Carmen told be that was actually a juvenile and that a fully grown adult could grow to be three times that size!. She said the rail on the ceiling was how they moved the Giant Squid specimen into the room because it was the only way.
In the centre of the room were a series of large metal tanks, she lifted the lid off one and I immediately realized the source of the terrible smell. The fluid inside was deep brown and murky looking. I couldn't see anything in there myself, while I peered in covering my mouth and nose. My nose caught the terrible whiff despite my attempts, my gag reflex was tickling my throat and I was about to throw.. She told me to stand back forcefully, I did so happily.
Carmen then walked over to a nearby drawer and snapped some some gloves on while staring at me. Carmen walked over and reached into the tank and grabbed onto something, something I could not see. With both hands she lifted out this huge fish, If you can call it that. She told me it was a newly found specimen of a prehistoric fish thought to be extinct some years ago. It was a fish called a "Coelacanth". Apparently it was in the tank because they had earlier been studying the specimen. She took me over to a PC and showed me images of why it was so special. It's internal anatomy was totally bizarre!. Bishop would have loved this shit!., it did not look like a fish at all inside. And I have cut open a few I can tell you.
She then opened a lid of another tank and showed me a "Angler fish". the fish made famous by Pixar's Finding Nemo. It still had it's dangly bit still intact. It looked as evil as any creature could be in my mind, with it's grotesque over-sized mouth and long spiny teeth. She opened another, and lifted out what looked like a monster, she asked me to guess what it was, I laughed an naturally replied, I have no idea!. She told me it was a dismembered Penis of a Minke whale, lol.
Carmen then brought me over to a shelf which had a numerous cylindrical jars lined up and said, this is a "Oarfish." What's a Oarfish I replied?. "The Oarfish sir, is the longest bony fish in the world!", she replied. I then asked how it could possibly be the longest fish in the world when it looked so small?. Carmen told me every jar on the shelf had the cut up segments of the specimen inside. If that was the case the specimen in question must have been nearly ten meters long : /. She allowed me to take one sneaky pic of that but old me not to tell anyone, or she would have to drown me in the tank if I did.
She then walked me over to a cabinet on the wall and pointed to a few smaller specimens. She told me that what I was looking at were in fact some of the very examples Sir Charles Darwin had brought back after one of his research missions. I thought that was kind cool to be able to see also.
The Giant Squid
Anyone for deep fried squid?
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