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Amateur photographer snaps pics of rare squid attack
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
May 4th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
May 4th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Amateur photographer Ginger Morneau was snapping away at the Pacific
coast of Canada at Victoria's Ogden Point breakwater when she wandered
upon a rare, unheard of sight; a seagull that had lit on the waters was
snatched up and gobbled by a red squid. Posted online, these rare - if
grisly nature photos have become a viral sensation.
Photographer Morneau was just ten feet away and managed to capture the entire brutal display.
Fascinated by the tussle, which lasted under a minute, Morneau had to fight off the urge to intervene and free the bird and watched helplessly as the fight ended in cruel defeat for the seagull.
"It was a stunning moment, to be sure," Morneau told newspaper reporters.
Morneau's husband Ken and her brother Lou Barker also bore witness to the attack. "We were strolling along and talking," Morneau continued.
"I saw the bird in the water and it looked like he was pecking at something underwater." Having not surfaced for air since the squid grabbed its head; the seagull was facing a losing battle to survive.
Quickly realizing that the bird had not come up for air, the group looked closer, but initially they thought it was an octopus.
"That was the odd part. That's what made us step forward and we realized there was an octopus," Morneau said.
Grabbing her camera, Morneau started taking pictures as the seagull's head was consumed in the squid's tentacles.
"It was apparent that it was going to lose," Morneau said.
It was a "horrible situation to watch, like a car wreck, it was so primal and gut wrenching," Morneau says. "The hair was standing up on the back of my neck."
Initially fighting with all its might to free itself, the seagull gave once last jerk before it died and was pulled under the water by the squid.
"It dropped like a stone," Morneau said.
"And then it was just gone, were shocked and awestruck, we couldn't believe what we had just seen.
"At one stage, a flock of seagulls flew overhead as their friend was dying. They were waiting, I guess, for scraps."
Morneau, her husband and brother enjoyed a lunch of calamari to toast the success of the squid.
"Then, when we came home at the end of the day, I wondered what kind of similar pictures could be out there (on the Internet) and I couldn't find a single image of an event like this," Morneau says.
"It broke barriers. It broke the element of sea and air. It broke the rules.
"It was really sad at that final moment," Morneau said to The Canadian Press. "For as wonderful nature is, nature can be deadly."
© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.