Rare giant squid found

Jewels · 04-03-2003, 11:25 PM

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, April 3 — Fishermen working in Antarctic waters have made an extremely rare catch — a colossal squid with eyes as big as dinner plates and razor-sharp hooks on its tentacles, a marine researcher said Thursday.

THE 330-POUND, 16-foot-long specimen was caught in the Ross Sea, said Steve O’Shea, a research fellow with the Auckland University of Technology. He said the squid was a young female; adults are much bigger.
Going by the scientific name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the animal is unrelated to the smaller and more common giant squid, O’Shea said.
“This animal is formidable,” he told New Zealand’s National Radio.
While the giant squid eats “quite small prey,” the colossal squid eats large prey like the Patagonian toothfish, which can grow more than 6 feet long (2 meters).
Fully grown, the colossal squid would be “larger than any giant squid I have seen, and I’ve seen 105 of them,” O’Shea said.
Only one other colossal squid has ever been caught before. Scientists knew of their existence because their beaks have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales.
“All we know is that it can move through the water ... to a depth of 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) and it is an extremely active and extremely aggressive killer,” O’Shea said.

It differs from the giant squid “by having enormous hooks arming the tentacles and the arms,” he said.
The creature makes up three-quarters of the diet of large sperm whales, which suggests there are large numbers of them in Antarctic waters, O’Shea said. He said the squid was caught near the surface of the ocean.
It was dead when it was hauled into the trawler and the remains are now in the New Zealand national museum.

One Winged Angel · 04-03-2003, 11:40 PM

wow, that really really cool. I'm just waiting for them to catch a live one someday. That will be exciting.

Happydude · 04-04-2003, 12:01 AM

an adult live one...that would be cool...

GameMaster · 04-04-2003, 01:33 AM

How scary would that be too encounter a live one underwater! :eek:

Eyes as big as dinner plates! :eek:

The Duggler · 04-04-2003, 10:52 AM

HAAA!! It's a Metroid!!!

Mushlafa · 04-04-2003, 08:07 PM

Thats ****in freaky if that thing is 16 feet long and 303 pounds and its just a little kid...

One Winged Angel · 04-04-2003, 10:00 PM

the adults ones have eyes the size of basketballs. They have found one frozen but never one alive. That would be so cool to see one swim around

Seven7 · 04-05-2003, 12:04 AM

Caught a young one eh!, wouldn't want to be in a small boat if the parents happened to be around.

Blade Runner · 04-05-2003, 05:02 PM

The dreaded giant squid! When i started reading i thought it was alive, still cool though. Hopefuly one day they will catch one. Wow, i'm too into this. *jumps back into box*

Ric · 04-11-2003, 06:43 PM

Thats piddly compared to one caught off the coast of china a couple of years ago, I tell you that thing was huge, 34 feet long, a big son of a biach. There was a picture of it completly spread out in a magazine.

And when you consider how big whales are that squid is nothing, some whales have been reported to have massive scars on them where the have been attacked by a giant squid, the squid has literally attached itself to the whales face with its tentacles down and beyond the full length of its body, scary sh!t.