A giant squid was recently caught off the coast of British Columbia. Nothing unusual in that — as readers of my many previous giant-squid postings will know — except that this species of squid, the Humboldt, normally confines itself to warm-water areas such as the Gulf of California. Even weirder, last year a Humboldt was found off the shores of Alaska.

The culprit may be global warming, as some scientists told the CBC:

“It may have come up with a tonne of warm water, or it might be that they’re making their way north comfortably now,” says Kelly Sendall, senior collection manager at the Royal B.C. Museum.

Living in Manhattan as I do, which is very low to the water, I sometimes imagine what this place will look like when global warming has brought the sea level up by, oh, 15 feet. For the neighborhoods south of 14th St., that’ll put the all the buildings in water up to the second floor. So whenever I walk down the street I’ll occasionally imagine what it would look like when people are taking canoes up and down Lafayette. Now I’ll imagine it with people taking canoes up and down Lafayette … and being feasted upon by giant squid.

(Thanks to Jeff MacIntyre and Marc Kelsey for this one!)