Egad!

[Islandoftiki]

Ok folks, real or fake? I just saw this one Facebook:

Steve Bargeron was fishing from a dock in Fort Pierce as he watched a fellow fisherman pull this creature out of the water. Steve said the massive thing was about 18 inches long and striking its own tail, so he grabbed it by its back like a lobster. Scientists think it may be some type of mantis shrimp.
Photo by Steve Bargeron

Obviously they're holding it close to the camera. It looks like it's 3 feet long in the picture but it was only 18 inches... still pretty good size. Maybe that's 18" with the dactyls extended.

What do you think? Just an exceptionally large spearer? What species do you think?

 

[Calappidae]

Looks real, and painful to get speared by that's all I know :eek2:

So much for L. maculata being the largest species..

 

[Islandoftiki]

This was in Maine, USA. Do L. Maculata exist in that area?

 

[Kharn]

I've been getting linked to it on Facebook all day -_- I got hit about 10x so far...

It is a pritty good specimen though

 

[rustyjames]

This was in Maine, USA. Do L. Maculata exist in that area?

The story said it was a fisherman in Florida. Still a pretty big shrimp.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Lysiosquilla scabricauda. The photo is probably a fake with the hand and rod well behind the stomatopod. L. scabricauda is reported to get to 275 mm and I have seen large males that may have approached 300 mm, but there is no way this animal is 18 inches even if you include in that estimate the dangling raptorial appendages.

Roy

 

[Adetia]

Some more pics in this article.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/trending/Caught-Shrimp-big-enough-to-cover-your-grill-photos.html

 

[Metazoer]

"We're going to need thicker glass"

 

[Calappidae]

"We're going to need thicker glass"

It's a spearer.

 

[Islandoftiki]

It's a spearer.

We're gonna need thicker skin!

 

[Islandoftiki]

Sheesh, this story has gone viral. It's hitting every news agency. Gizmodo picked it up, USA Today picked it up, People magazine covered it. Google "giant shrimp caught florida" and see what I mean. Friends have shared it to my Facebook page several times today and I'm seeing every saltwater related Facebook vendor throwing it up.

 

[Calappidae]

We're gonna need thicker skin!

and deeper sandbed


Anybody know the fate of this specimen after being caught? Would be a shame if they killed it.. could've just been a new size record, ain't like some specimens that we seen here haven't grown freakishly large before. (Roy's 8" O. scyllarus, Kharn's.. I forget oversized G. Glabrous?) Then there is just rare occurences like G. smithii's alternate coloration.

 

[ca1ore]

I've seen foot long mantis in Palau, so not a stretch to assume they could get to 18". Did they keep it I wonder? If not, I'd fall on the side of 'fake'.

 

[ArmasCG]

I'm thinking about doing some deep night dives at some point to start looking for more of these monsters out by where I live. I haven't had much luck near shore. No matter how large this is it's still really exciting to see!

 

[ScienceAchieved]

and deeper sandbed


Anybody know the fate of this specimen after being caught? Would be a shame if they killed it...

they claimed to have released it. I just saw this, I dont have this page bookmarked on my phone and googling mantis shrimp brings this forum up. Now it brings up thousands of news agencies articles about this haha. The funniest one has in writing, " scientists beleive it may be some sort of mantis shrimp". Good hypothesis, scientists. science achieved!

 

[liverock]

Lysiosquilla scabricauda. The photo is probably a fake with the hand and rod well behind the stomatopod. L. scabricauda is reported to get to 275 mm and I have seen large males that may have approached 300 mm, but there is no way this animal is 18 inches even if you include in that estimate the dangling raptorial appendages.

Roy

Roy...I caught one in the Gulf on hook and line...was about 15 miles offshore..of Tampa.....and this was about 20 years ago....the one I caught was an almost white color with black bands...and at least 18 inches long...scared me so bad I just cut the line and let him go...in retrospect should have kept him....is the only one I have ever seen/caught in over 40 years on the Gulf of Mexico.

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

 

[Tweaked]

So these are fake too??

 

[Calappidae]

So these are fake too??

Those look normal sized..

 

[ScienceAchieved]

So these are fake too??

The perspective makes them look bigger. I see that they both have band-aids on their fingers haha

 

[Islandoftiki]

So these are fake too??

Not fake and also not 18" long. The point was the the viral story about the monster mantis shrimp was undoubtedly exaggerated (or maybe just technically incorrect). Many mantis shrimp facts you'll find online are sensationalized. I'm constantly having to correct people who state that mantis shrimp can shatter bones or remove an entire finger with one hit.

Those in the picture you show look like normal sized large spearers. Obviously they look larger when the datcyls are stretched out to their maximum length and held close to the camera, but that's not how mantis shrimp length is measured. So, it's likely that in the original story, they stretched out a normal sized large 15" adult and described it as 18". No big deal, it's unlikely they would know how to measure a mantis shrimp. Nevertheless, they probably didn't have an 18" monster. And they did use forced perspective to make it look like it was 3 feet long and 30 lbs. Big fish story, IMO.

It would be cool though if they preserved it and had an expert confirm that it was a mantis of unusual size.