Not something you would want to find in your plate of Calamari, the Giant Squid and Colossal Squid have long been the stuff of legends. Stories surrounding the creature claiming it sank ships and plucked sailors off decks, heightened our curiosity of these already mysterious creatures over the last decade. Dead specimens, that sometimes washed up on beaches, provided proof of the existence of these massive deep-dwellers, but no researchers had ever seen one alive until a few years. Even with increasing sightings since, the Giant and Colossal Squids never seize to amaze the World when they make their rare appearances.
Two Japanese researchers, Tsunemi Kubodera of Tokyo’s National Science Museum and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, were the first to lure one of these giants with bait to catch a glimpse of it as well as photograph the live 25-plus foot female squid. The managed this almost impossible feat by followings the sightings of sperm whales with sucker marks on their skin. The researchers then chose a spot to lower a hook baited with a single small squid and an automated digital camera that snapped a picture every few minutes and sent it down to a depth of nearly 3,000 feet. Their operation was a success as the giant squid came for the bait. The unlucky squid however got a tentacle snagged on the hook and struggled for 4 hours trying to get free. In the struggle however, the researchers obtained more than 500 pictures of the squid, which scientists called Architeuthis. They then tried to haul the heavy weight squid into the vessel as a live specimen, but the squid lost the battle and its life while trying to get free.
Just like the Giant Jellyfish that frequent Japanese waters creating waves among marine scientists, researchers and water lovers the world over, there was little known about these rare and elusive creatures.
The Giant Squid, is the smaller of the 2 squids and is more widespread than it’s cousin the Colossal Squid. Specifically found in the North Atlantic Ocean around Newfoundland, Norway and the northern British Isles, the Giant squid has also been sighted around Southern Africa, Japan, New Zealand and Australia among its other dwellings. It is estimated to grow to astounding proportions of 13 meters (43 ft) for females and 10 meters (33 ft) for males measuring from claudial fin to the tip of the two long tentacles. Like all squid, a giant squid has a mantle (torso), eight arms, and two longer tentacles and can weigh a maximum of 275 kilograms (610 lb) for females and 150 kilograms (330 lb) for males. The inside surfaces of the arms and tentacles are lined with hundreds of sub-spherical suction cups and it is common to find circular scars from the suckers on or close to the head of sperm whales who are predators to the giant squid.
The Colossal squid is one of the largest living organisms and is estimated to grow upto 14 metres (46 ft) in length. Unlike the giant squid, whose arms and tentacles only have suckers lined with small teeth, the Colossal Squid’s limbs are equipped with sharp hooks. They are also believed to have a longer mantle than giant squids, although their tentacles are shorter. The Colossal squid known range extends only to the Southern Ocean right from Antarctica to southern South America, southern South Africa, and the southern tip of New Zealand.
While little is known about the life of this creature, scientists have slowly been piecing together evidence of the elusive giants from pictures like these, the specimens washed up on shore and even from stomach contents of sperm whales. In time, we’ll learn more about these mysterious creatures living in the depths of our Oceans.
