Sweet Jesus! Several news agencies are reporting that New Zealand fisherman in the Ross Sea caught the LARGEST SQUID EVER FOUND. It’s not Architeuthis dux, the giant squid but rather Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the colossal squid! The monster comes into 450kg (992 lbs). That is 1/2 ton! It is 10m long (32.9ft). The previous record was 300kg from 2003, so you can see this quite a find. As I posted before, while the giant squid is longer, the colossal squid is heavier. “It is believed the crew on the boat stopped winching in the long-line and spent two hours manoeuvring a net under the squid to haul it aboard.” My favorite quote is from Dr. Steve O’Shea “He says if calamari were made from the squid the rings would be the size of tractor tires.”
Stay tuned for pictures!
Here you find 2 pictures:
http://www.20min.ch/news/kreuz_und_quer/story/14305224
Not that we Australians are in the slightest bit sensitive about our friends across the Tasman having bigger squid than us, but that witty quote originally came from a fine Aussie cephalopod biologist.
But it is an amazing animal.
Thanks for clarifying the difference between the two “giant” squids: I keep reading each is the “largest”, which would seem to be nonsense, and admit it hadn’t occurred to me that what was being measured was different. Length vs. weight neatly explains the seemingly conflicting claims.
Both are amazing animals. (Er, both squids, that is. The Aussie biologist, is, well, ah, let’s not go there… ;-) )