4 Comments

New Zealand fisherman land a beast of a squid

February 22, 2007 by in Random with 4 Comments

Giant Squid caughtCalamari for all! New Zealand fisherman land a giant squid worthy of being dubbed the real sea monster from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

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.

Stories of such creatures surfacing has to make you scratch your head. For hundreds of years these giant creatures of the deep kept to themselves – until now. What is bringing about this change? Are humans to blame for these creatures making their way up to the surface? One day, will we all be able to see these giant creatures swimming through coastal shoals no different from bottle nose dolphins?


  • BroncoBash

    I agree…all of the sudden we are seeing an influx of these creatures. With fisherman hitting deeper and deeper water and killing 200 year old fish what will replace those. Why are giants coming to the surface..wow we did a great job screwing up things.

  • http://www.acecombine.com DOV

    “In Kazakhstan we love animals,
    This is Eagle, he is my pet..
    he’s a beautiful pig” :DD

  • http://www.teara.govt.nz/ Anonymous Kiwi

    Very interesting stuff.

    I note that there seems to be some confusion over what is a “giant squid” and what’s a “colossal squid”. The colossal basically have small tentacles whereas the giant has very long ones. Also the colossal a vivacious hunter.

    The squid didn’t come to the surface it was eating a ‘toothfish’ at depth which happened to be attached to a long line. It no doubt ate the hook and the rest is well … news.

    The issue is we (humans) are now hunting all areas of the planet for species that were of no interest some decades ago (orange roughy is an example of the past). Over fishing is well documentated and well … beggars can’t be choosers. Depth sea creatures are obviously more interested in baits than they were in the past.

    It is unlikely they will be visiting coastal shoals in our life time. But is interesting to contemplate how species of this planet will evolve as the next ice age draws close.

    Great blog by the way

  • Hax

    did you know that kind of fish we used to make fish sticks off in the ’70s is now as good as gone?
    somehow they changed that in the mid 80s and nobody noticed.

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