Also - Extremely Large Squid!
Knowing of my love for cephalopods (not a joke), Sam sent me to this story in The Age. The massive squid caught last month weighed in at a shocking 495 kilos. If I’ve remembered my metric conversions, and there’s no reason to believe I have, that’s 1089 pounds of calamari. There’s an impressive photo in the story, so Sam probably thinks she’s blown my world.
Little does she understand what I dork I am.
I already had a picture of the beast in question on my desktop, which would be kind of appaling if it wasn’t so cool!
[I'm sorry to report that I'm not sure where this photo came from. I downloaded it last month for purely personal enjoyment, but am now using it without accreditation. This is, of course, against both copyright and good taste. If it yours, please let me know and thanks for reading the blog. Please don't sue me.]
Now, I don’t eat calamari (see above for declaration of love for squids, octopi, and cuttlefish), but apparently they’re going to use a huge microwave to defrost it. Insane. I feel like there’s a short story to be had in here somewhere… but that could just be the Cuban coffee talking.
By the way, the title originally read “Also - Giant Squid,” when I was informed by myself later (thanks self) that the squid caught was actually a colossal squid, not a giant squid. The colossal is fatter, but not as long. Pictures of a giant squid here.
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March 22nd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Actually sent article as felt distinction between ‘giant’ squid and ‘colossal’ squid was both important and amusing. Photo was a just a bonus but figured you probably already had one in a picture-frame beside your bed…..
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:05 pm
I was really excited when I heard about this squid. But then I realized that they totally kept it and killed it. Life is supposed to have that cinematic moment where the fisherfolks and the rustic captain with a beard cry just a little in awe and proclaim that they have no right to keep such a majestic creature and let ‘er slip back into the ocean. And 20,000 leagues under the sea she will rejoin her friends and family and while they curse and vow revenge on the fisherfolks, the giant squid will secretly respect the captain (cut to shot of captain staring wistfully into the fog while gently caressing a picture of his dead wife).
yep…disappointed.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:54 pm
See? I knew there was a short story in there.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Regarding the squib - you ain’t seen nothing yet! An extremely large creature came under the 40 footy acht I was on board - 2am off Portuguese coast june 94 - a large squib-like animal at least a body length 100 plus feet long and 30 foot diameter with large tenticles. Diamond meshed outline red coloured bioluminescent like a net gave shape of body continuously changed tone of red. Bright bioluminescence glow in water arround the tenticled area. Came to surface and dived both vertical trajectory at great speed. This was a squid with a mantle length arround 100 feet maybe 150 feet (It was angled down at say 30 degrees to the sea surface so difficult to tell - 2 to 3 times length of yacht plus tentacles). I now have to be a believer as I have seen this creature
which was as large or larger than the largest whale on earth. If only I had a camera to hand at the time!
May 1st, 2008 at 4:26 am
When I was a boy, I seen this huge snake like fish. My friend and I were swimming in the ocean. It was sort of like a giant eel. This was about 50 foot long. We seen the same thing about 2 days later in the same location. It ate my friend. Kicking and screaming my friend went to fish heaven.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:28 am
Know what the morel of that story was..b/s/ haha
May 26th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
have you seen this today?
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080526/2/170hb.html
“Massive squid hauled off Victorian coast”
May 29th, 2008 at 12:18 am
This has been sitting in my spam queue for some reason. Awesome!