Posted on 02/22/2007 12:51:48 AM PST by Stoat
New Zealand fishermen in the Ross Sea have caught what's thought to be the largest squid ever found.
Its estimated weight is about 450 kilograms.
The species is known as the colossal squid, shorter but much heavier than the better known giant squid.
It was hauled to the surface while munching on one of its favourite foods, a Patagonian toothfish which the fishermen had hooked on a longline.
Dr Steve O'Shea, from the Auckland University of Technology, says the previous largest find weighed 300 kilograms.
He says if calamari were made from the squid the rings would be the size of tractor tyres.
The squid was caught three weeks ago, but the find was only announced today.
Geoff Dolan, an observer with New Zealand's Ministry of Fisheries, was aboard the vessel San Aspiring, owned by the Sanford seafood company, when the squid was hauled aboard.
"There was quite a lot of excitement onboard ... the decision was taken that the chances of survival were not good, and in the interests of science it should be taken on board," Dolan said.
Sanford's deepwater division manager Greg Johansson said the squid was barely alive when it was pulled aboard.
"It was deemed that is was more valuable to science," Johansson said.
The squid was taken below deck and stored in a 1200 litre capacity bin, before it was frozen.
It has since been transferred to one of the company's coolrooms in Timaru, on New Zealand's South Island.
It will ultimately end up at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, where it will be preserved for scientific study.
Colossal squid were first described in 1925 after two tentacles were found in the stomach of a sperm whale.
The creatures live in an area from Antarctica to the southern extremities of South America, South Africa and New Zealand, a statement from the New Zealand government said.
It said few colossal squid have been sighted, with one was caught in the net of a Russian trawler in the Ross Sea in 1981, another found near the surface in 2003, and another near South Georgia Island in the Southern Atlantic ocean on a toothfish longline last year.
Don't you have fresh bait shops in NZ? >:-}
,,, we do, but being subject to such a high degree of improvisation, as you know, I'm always weary of the possibility of eating chopped up, non performing bureaucrats.
Clever Kiwi's! >:-}
Wow, that thing is downright frightening!
Disappointed? Just go deeper!
One has to admire the spectacular design, however. An amazing example of God's work, although I wouldn't want to ask it out on a date :-)
No doubt, they are amazing creatures and the designer must really be amazing. I still don’t believe that the universe as it is today is just a result of an explosion and we’re all a result of the particles randomly flying out of it.
OH LAWDY! That’s an amazing picture! I initially thought it was a Photoshop, but I looked at the page it came from and it appears to be the real deal.
Those people are pretty brave touching it’s tentacles like that....although the Colossus squid has the particularly nasty rotating hooks inside the rings, the Giant squid’s are pretty formidable as well, with the rings surrounded by circular saws, and I’ll bet they’re really sharp! (Please see post #9 of this thread if you haven’t already)
Just an astonishing picture, thanks very much for posting.
(although I’m not sure if I will be able to sleep tonight....that big eye will be haunting me!)
Agreed. I think that Ronald Reagan and Raquel Welch are both proof that God does indeed exist....such genius and such beauty couldn't possibly be random! :-)
I thought Jack Sparrow caught the biggest squid in the last PotC movie...
It took me awhile to sort out my confusion from your post, because uh-oh Chongo! was from Danger Island :-)
But I believe I grok your meaning :-)
Wouldn’t that be one in the same?
Lawdy, all of these pop-culture references have got me giving my search engines a workout....
I didn’t see Pirates of the Caribbean so I initially drew a blank on that one :-)
I think i lost my apatite.
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