"Colossal squid caught"

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday. The squid, weighing an estimated 990 lbs and about 39 feet long, took two hours to land in Antarctic waters, New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said.

Link

Could just as well be that the "Monsters" sailers seen in the past are real.

Thoughts

AlBeMeT

Can you imagine the calamari you could get from that thing....yum yum

damn, you beat me to it on this story. caught alive is the key here as they are usually found dead. the pics are phenominal

From Yahoo news

Local media said early estimates put the squid at 10 meters (30 feet) in length and weighing 450 kg (992 pounds) -- 150 kg (330 pounds) heavier than the next biggest specimen found.

"I can assure you that this is going to draw phenomenal interest. It is truly amazing," squid expert Steve O'Shea at Auckland University of Technology told local media.

O'Shea said if calamari were made from the Colossal squid's rings it would be the size of tractor tires.

Mmmm who's got the vinegar..

Judging from reports this thing is between 10 to 20 foot longer than the next largest ever cuaght..

Hope this is not another sign of the mess we are making of the worlds oceans..

Check out the slide show from the article. It really shows how big it is. I'm glad they had a quote from Dr. Steve O'shea, he is one of the top squid researcher in the world. He can at least verify that this is the colossal squid and not the giant squid.

I know the giant squid has the largest eyes of any animal, I wonder now if the colossals eyes are larger?

Hope this is not another sign of the mess we are making of the worlds oceans..

I was thinking the same thing. First the japanese crew gets video, now this.

maybe there is a squid food shortage, so they are having to expand their normal hunting areas ?

Originally posted by Valorian
Can you imagine the calamari you could get from that thing....yum yum

The news report I watched said "If it were cut into calamari rings, they would be the size of tractor tires"
Quite the appetizer!

this is the third, maybe fourth, sighting of a live one in the last year. something truly strange about it.

maybe they squid are depleting their own food sources and moving up closer to the surface for more food or maybe the population is growing and, therefore, they are simply more prevalent now

Naaa..

My guess is the increase in pollution stuff dump into the ocean, and overfishing.

Hey, who knows maybe the change in ocean temperatures, causing them to move closer to the surface.

very cool...

One question though...

Why were these fisherman out looking for Patagonian Toothfish? i thought these were a protected species?

After all, the Aus Navy chased a fishing boat a few years back for doing the same thing..

Linky

Wow wow wow.

These colossal squids are even larger than giant squids. That was an amazingly lucky catch! Too bad they're sending it to a museum instead of frying it up.

It's not that big really and it's very jelly like anyway. The mouth won't eat you and I bet a shark could eat it. It's long but it's floppy what is the point. It's still no monster once one is found to be like 100 foot I might get serious.

Originally posted by The time lord
It's not that big really and it's very jelly like anyway. The mouth won't eat you and I bet a shark could eat it. It's long but it's floppy what is the point.

It's still no monster once one is found to be like 100 foot I might get serious.

I assume your either joking or know very little about these beast's. It would rip either you or a shark apart if it was that way inclined and would do it easily.

I know that whales eat squids and I have seen a video on you tube where it kills a shark anyway. But against a great white biggest species vs another biggest, it does not seem that it would harm a shark that big. Yes they can be dangerous but they seem so jelly like that I wonder if one attack can kill it first time. It's impressive but not quite the myth I hoped for.

Ha, your assuming you'd catch the bugger first. They are exceptionally fast and alert. Battles between these beast's and whales often leave the whales with many horrible scars. Whilst they my look very jelly like, they're not as soft as they appear.

Here is a good link to a page that has alot of info and some good pictures.

Take a look at the rotating hooks that are in the cups on the tentacles, or the size of the beaks these creatures have.

These bugger's will happily take on Sperm whales, so I doubt a Great White would pose much of a threat.

Anyway time for me to log off. But was wondering if octopussies get that big or bigger like the myths of old. Which one would win in a battle I WONDER. But even so they are nice in water but quite ugly things close up, very alien like with big heads, maybe aliens evolved from squids after man dies off on earth so we get time travelling aliens comming back.

Originally posted by The time lord
Anyway time for me to log off. But was wondering if octopussies get that big or bigger like the myths of old. Which one would win in a battle I WONDER. But even so they are nice in water but quite ugly things close up, very alien like with big heads, maybe aliens evolved from squids after man dies off on earth so we get time travelling aliens comming back.

I just got back from the bar, and reading that completely blew my mind That squid is totally rad though, and even totally radder that it's alive. I hope it stays alive forever and becomes a celebrity so it can give interviews.

I was watching the news and the captured one of 20 feet long on camera.. I wonder why there are so many showing up all of a sudden. These things can get hundreds of feet long. You gotta realise only the stupidest young ones are gonna get caught or venture toward the underwater subs bright lights and go into the cameras lens..

What a shame the squid did not catch one of the fishermen. It should have dragged him down never to be seen again. So now it will go to a museum to be cut into little pieces and examined. What is the point!!!! Everything has to be analysed and explored. Why? What are they going to learn? There is giant squid living a the bottom of the sea, I think we knew that all along.

Wow, mankind is truly the greatest species ever.

Originally posted by Crakeur
this is the third, maybe fourth, sighting of a live one in the last year. something truly strange about it.

maybe they squid are depleting their own food sources and moving up closer to the surface for more food or maybe the population is growing and, therefore, they are simply more prevalent now

Its not the squid doing the depleting, its us.