http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21269277-2,00.html

beer:

Andy

What, they should not have killed it. ""It was deemed that is was more valuable to science," Johansson said." Okay. Well, if nothing else, it goes to show that we do not know what is still lurking on our planet.

Man, what's going on with all these enormous squid stories recently?? First the Giant Squid off Japan, then the story Tony found about the sailboat with the squid marks on it, and now this. For being such rare creatures, I find it quite astounding that we've seen or heard about three of them in the past few months or so. Is something going on in the oceans that makes them all of a sudden more active? Are they being driven from their depthy hiding places in pursuit of more food or better water? Sounds like Dirk Pitt or Kurt Austin should investigate, because I smell an evil plot in our midst. p: det:

oswalder Posted on Feb 22 2007, 09:33 AM

I agree, sombody needs to contact them. Hey, this would make a great story if I could ever get my homework done.

Erik, add to that the story on the giant squid last week showing that it "lit up" when attacking bait. I think the Japanese got that footage as well.

The Kiwis often turn up giant squids because of where they fish and what they fish for. From what the article said, it appeared as though the squid had got itself out of sorts while being pulled up so they probably did it a favour putting it out of its misery. Sad though.

Totally cool that we are still amazed by the creatures that live in the ocean.

beer:

Andy

i still think someone should get NUMA on this. :lol:

I hadn't heard about that! Did someone post a link here that I somehow missed??

Erik, I saw the footage on the news last week and just found this link with a rather cool photo...I reckon you might agree...almost doesn't look real.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1044

beer:

Andy

Awesome!

My computer doesn't have Real Player, so I couldn't open the link in the article. I searched on YouTube, though and found this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM21XKdqu4g

Can someone tell me if they're the same video? Pretty cool!

Erik, that's the one I saw bits of (the non-red footage!) on the news with the presenter doing the brief voice over, not that pommy guy.

beer:

Andy

So much for me getting back in the water. I wonder if they will ever find one that apparently fights whales and leaves the giant scars and sucker marks. Fish never stop growing as long as they live-maybe squid are the same.

Rowan, I don't think that squid would have been able to eat an adult human. Most carnivorous marine species don't like the way we taste. Most sharks will spit you back out and leave you there. Note, that I said most, nature has been known to do some pretty weird things.

Also, I doubt that it would be stupid enought to attack a whale, whales run in pods and hunt together and most of them are bigger than the record for a squid.

Dunno about attacking a whale but it might not have a choice if defending itself against a hungry sperm whale!

beer:

Andy

Speaking of whales, I was watching the 25th anniversary special of Nature last night and they had a segment about humpback whales I think and how they swirl the herring into a clump using air bubbles and then rush up from underneath. Holy whale of a mouth, batman, their mouths could probably swallow my house! HUGE. yike:

They showed one whale eating a bird that was unfortunate enough to get caught in its big maw, but then the whale spit the alive bird back out. I guess it only likes herring.

Well at least he saved the bird.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21426583-1702,00.html

NEW Zealand's biggest aquatic celebrity, a colossal squid, has officially weighed-in at 495kg, making it the largest ever caught.

But it won't get any bigger because it's already dead cold.

And scientists can't figure out how to defrost it.

Squid expert Dr Steve O'Shea, who will be studying the creature, said it was weighed last week while it was still frozen in a large container.

“It is 495kg. It is even heavier than we thought,” Dr O'Shea said.

The weight of the colossal squid, caught by fishermen on a longline in Antarctic waters in February, makes it 195kg heavier than the previous record-holder, a 300kg squid of the same species found in 2003.

The colossal squid is a species much heavier but shorter than the better known giant squid.

Dr O'Shea said the colossal colossal was priceless to scientists, and would be worth many millions of dollars if it were insured.

Meanwhile, the scientists have yet to decide how best to thaw out the colossal squid, which was frozen into a container soon after it was captured.

Dr O'Shea said more than 426 people had so far telephoned to suggest how to defrost the squid.

Scientists may use some sort of giant microwave, he said.

“Obviously not a Fisher and Paykel commercial grade thing, but there are certain microwave equivalents that are used by industry for treating timber and the like that we could probably fit this thing into, so that is one option.

“Someone told me that could probably do it in a couple of minutes to an hour. But that is just one option. We want to make sure we use the best process,” he said.

He said it could not simply be left to defrost at room temperature, because it would take four days. By then the outside would have rotted while the inside was still frozen.

The squid is being housed in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.