Giant squid

Architeuthis dux

Timeline

One of the first pieces of real evidence of the existence of a giant squid was found in 1873 when one attacked a minister and a young boy in a dory in Bell Island, Newfoundland. A giant squid specimen washed ashore in Glover's Harbour, Newfoundland on November 2, 1878. Its body was 6.1m (20 ft) long, and one of its tentacles measured 10.7m (35 ft) long and it was estimated as weighing 2.2 tonnes.

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The period (1870 - 1880) in Newfoundland saw the greatest known concentration of beached giant squid to date: 50 or more individual squid carcasses washed up on the shores of Newfoundland during this decade. An almost equal number of strandings also occurred in New Zealand during the late nineteenth century. Although strandings continue to occur sporadically throughout the world, the late nineteenth century mass strandings at Newfoundland and New Zealand have not yet been repeated. It is not known exactly why giant squid become stranded on shore, but it is possible that a periodic though temporary alteration of the distribution of the deep, cold water where the squid live might be the cause. Many scientists who have studied squid mass strandings believe that they are cyclical and predictable, but the length of time between strandings is not yet known. A period of 90 years between mass strandings has been proposed by Frederick Aldrich, an "Architeuthis" specialist, who used this value to correctly predict a relatively small stranding that occurred between 1964 and 1966. By and large, however, squid strandings remain a mystery.

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The search for a live Architeuthis specimen includes attempts to find live young, including larvae. Approximately 65 specimens, one-fifth of all the giant squid ever found, have been found in the waters off Newfoundland; the last in December 2004.

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Recently, a possibly even more massive squid, the little known Colossal Squid Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, has been described in more detail due to a new specimen being found. It is an inhabitant of Antarctic waters, and unlike the giant squid, relies upon both claw-like hooks and suction cups on its arms and tentacles to capture prey. Although its body may be of greater size than the giant squid, its tentacles appear to be considerably shorter in length; it is also believed to be responsible for scars on the backs of sperm whales, through the use of hooks on its tentacles.

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On September 27, 2005, scientists released over 500 photographs taken at the end of October 2004 of a live giant squid. The photo sequence, taken at a depth of 900 m (nearly 3000 ft) off Japan's Ogasawara Islands, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in "a ball of tentacles." Researchers were able to locate the likely general location of giant squid by closely tailing the movements of sperm whales. Per Tsunemi Kubodera, of the National Science Museum of Japan in Tokyo, "we knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived, so we used them to lead us to the squid." Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association reported their observations in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

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Among other things, the observations demonstrate actual hunting behaviors of adult Architeuthis, a subject on which there had been much speculation. The photographs showed an aggressive hunting pattern by the baited squid, leading to it impaling a tentacle on the bait ball's hooks. This may disprove the theory that the giant squid is a drifter which eats whatever floats by, rarely moving so as to conserve energy. It seems that the species has a much more belligerent feeding technique.

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