Colossal squid

[Anachronist]

Taken from a BBC article. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6385071.stm

NZ fishermen land colossal squid

The squid took about two hours to land

New Zealand fishermen have caught what is expected to be a world-record-breaking colossal squid.

Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said the squid, weighing an estimated 450kg (990lb),took two hours to land in Antarctic waters.

Local news said the Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was about 10m (33ft) long, and was the first adult colossal squid landed intact.

One expert said calamari rings made from it would be like tractor tyres.

"I can assure you that this is going to draw phenomenal interest. It is truly amazing," Steve O'Shea from Auckland's University of Technology told local media.

Colossal squid, which are found deep in Antarctic waters, are thought to be about the same length as giant squid (Architeutis dux) but are much heavier.

The species was first identified in 1925, but very few specimens have been found.

The first specimen recovered intact, a 150kg (330lb) immature female, was caught on the surface in the Ross Sea near the Antarctic coast in April 2003.

'Nearly dead'

Mr Anderton said the fishermen had been fishing for Patagonian toothfish in deep Antarctic waters when the squid - which was eating a toothfish - was caught.



"The squid was almost dead when it reached the surface, and the careful work of the crew was paramount in getting this specimen aboard in good condition," he said.

The squid was frozen in the ship's hull and brought back to New Zealand for scientific examination.

"The colossal squid has just arrived in New Zealand and it is likely that it is the first intact adult male colossal squid to ever be successfully landed," Mr Anderton said.

Another giant squid from the deeps.

[Da Skinna]

Old. Covered before.

But still, imagine jumping on that thing from the boat, to see what it does...

[Anachronist]

Bloody hell, i didnt know.

[Beiss]

Why doesn't it weigh more? 450 kilos is less than a horse - I think I might even have heard about an American woman who weighed more at some point. How's that possible? The damned thing is nearly the size of a sperm whale - and those weigh roughly 50 tonnes.

[Da Skinna]

Why doesn't it weigh more? 450 kilos is less than a horse - I think I might even have heard about an American woman who weighed more at some point. How's that possible? The damned thing is nearly the size of a sperm whale - and those weigh roughly 50 tonnes.

Why does everything have to be American with you?


Kidding, but I think it could be because squid and cephalopods have no real bones, or nothing really hard enough with enough mass to make up for the percepted image that they're FREAKIN' huge...

I still wouldn't want to accidentally kick one swimming in the ocean...

[boofhead]

The KRAKEN LIVES!

[chris_uk_83]

I love the naming convention: "Giant Squid" was taken so they had to upgrade to "Colossal Squid", genius.

[Beiss]

You should see the namings of various computer related technologies from the 80's. By the looks of it, that's when they started using things like "super", "ultra", "hyper" in everyday speech. I guess, at some point, they must have realized that things were going to consistently improve and that the most powerful computer wasn't going to be built that decade, and so naming new technologies "fast" only to be replaced by "very fast", "super fast", "ultra fast" and eventually "hyper fast" wasn't going to work in the long run.

I don't understand why they don't simply name it "Kraken" as boofhead suggested. Obviously, that's what it is. Unless there's an even bigger one, the size of the one in PotC2, that we haven't found yet. And in that case, it'd be awkward to name the real Kraken something else.