I usually prefer more traditional fare......
Posted on 02/22/2007 12:51:48 AM PST by Stoat
New Zealand fishermen in the Ross Sea have caught what's thought to be the largest squid ever found.
Its estimated weight is about 450 kilograms.
The species is known as the colossal squid, shorter but much heavier than the better known giant squid.
It was hauled to the surface while munching on one of its favourite foods, a Patagonian toothfish which the fishermen had hooked on a longline.
Dr Steve O'Shea, from the Auckland University of Technology, says the previous largest find weighed 300 kilograms.
He says if calamari were made from the squid the rings would be the size of tractor tyres.
The squid was caught three weeks ago, but the find was only announced today.
Geoff Dolan, an observer with New Zealand's Ministry of Fisheries, was aboard the vessel San Aspiring, owned by the Sanford seafood company, when the squid was hauled aboard.
"There was quite a lot of excitement onboard ... the decision was taken that the chances of survival were not good, and in the interests of science it should be taken on board," Dolan said.
Sanford's deepwater division manager Greg Johansson said the squid was barely alive when it was pulled aboard.
"It was deemed that is was more valuable to science," Johansson said.
The squid was taken below deck and stored in a 1200 litre capacity bin, before it was frozen.
It has since been transferred to one of the company's coolrooms in Timaru, on New Zealand's South Island.
It will ultimately end up at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, where it will be preserved for scientific study.
Colossal squid were first described in 1925 after two tentacles were found in the stomach of a sperm whale.
The creatures live in an area from Antarctica to the southern extremities of South America, South Africa and New Zealand, a statement from the New Zealand government said.
It said few colossal squid have been sighted, with one was caught in the net of a Russian trawler in the Ross Sea in 1981, another found near the surface in 2003, and another near South Georgia Island in the Southern Atlantic ocean on a toothfish longline last year.
Ai! Cthulhu ftagn!
I have caught and eaten the Humbolt squid down in Baja. We only caught the small ones about 4 feet long, but they get to about 8 feet. They are very aggressive and I would not want to be in the water when they are around. I had them follow my fly up to the boat while trolling and attack it while I dangled it there. They flash different colors, and when you hook one and get it close to the boat they try to squirt and ink you. But they taste good and make good bait. The Mexicans who commercially fish for them call them Rojo Diablo (the red devil), because of their red color, and tales of them grabbing fisherman and dragging them to their death.
I don't think I'd want to die by squid. They're ferocious suckers.
Rut roh!
I usually prefer more traditional fare......
The real big ones would have dragged the ship down to the bottom of the ocean, never to be heard from again. Only the "littlest giants" get caught. :)
I don't think these species are fit for human consumption. Too much ammonia in the flesh.
Your screen name alone makes you an authority on this subject. ;-)
Squid ping
All wiggly creatures are welcome here :-)
I read something that there is an enzyme akin to ammonia in the flesh of Architeuthis. Not sure about the colossal variety.
I'm no authority, despite my screenname. Just an amateur biologist with extreme gaps in knowledge.
In this case they may have thought it was fatally injured by the fish hooks but it gives me pause to automatically kill these enormous creatures. Be it huge squids or sharks or snakes or whatever. When I see a tremendous shark hanging upside down or dead at port I feel like now the world is missing something wonderful. Albeit I'm the first one to pour over their photographs, I wish we did not have to catch and or kill magnificent things to study them or show them off. Just let them live like they have been doing.
Squid are very interesting creatures. There is allot that is not known about them. When I was fishing and camping in Baja we encountered them frequently. One evening a large school of the Humboldt squid came in the cove we were camping at. The noise they made as the water boiled was unforgettable. Many of them beached themselves. The noise they made as they lay there squirting their last bit of water sounded like whales exhaling. It was a very bizarre scene. The beach was littered with their bodies the next day.
Agreed....they are all part of God's Creation and they all have their place in the grand scheme of things.
I believe that this is one of the reasons why commercial trawlers such as the one featured in this story have observers from the Fishing Ministry (and other governmental agencies are on vessels from other countries) on board....they ensure that things are done according to the law and no wanton culling is engaged in. From the article, it sounds as though the matter was considered carefully in this case, and it was determined that the animal would not have survived if it had been released and so the decision was made to bring it aboard due to it's value to science.
Can you sushi that rare Patagonian tooth fish?
'The species is known as the colossal squid, shorter but much heavier than the better known giant squid.'
IMG SRC="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Michaelmoore1.jpg">
'Its estimated weight is about 450 kilograms.'
'The species is known as the colossal squid, shorter but much heavier than the better known giant squid.'
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