Monster Squid Washes Up In Australia
550-Pound Colossus Found By Tasmanian Beachcomber Is One Of The Largest Ever Seen
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Seen here on Ocean Beach in Strahan, Tasmania, July 10, 2007, one of the largest squids ever found: three feet across at its widest point and 26 feet long from the top of its head to the end of its tentacles. (AP Photo/Tazmania Parks Service)
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The sea creature, known to scientists as Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is being studied and may wind up in the Tasmanian Museum. Above: wildlife workers take a look shortly after the squid's discovery in Tasmania. (AP Photo/Tazmania Parks Service)
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"It is a whopper," said Genefor Walker-Smith, a zoologist who studies invertebrates at the Tasmanian Museum.
Giant squid live in waters off southern Australia and New Zealand — where a half-ton colossus, believed to be the world's largest, was caught in February. They attract the sperm whales that feed on them.
The dead squid, measuring 3 feet across at its widest point and 26 feet from the tip of its body to the end of its tentacles, was found early Wednesday by a beachcomber at Ocean Beach on the island state of Tasmania's west coast, the museum said.
The squid was expected to be taken to the museum, where DNA and other scientific tests would be carried out before it is preserved and possibly put on public display.
For anyone thinking of a calamari feast, Walker-Smith said giant squid contain high levels of ammonia in their bodies as a buoyancy aid.
"It would not taste very nice at all," she said.
New Zealand fishermen netted a 1,100-pound, 33-foot-long squid in the Southern Ocean in February. It is widely believed to be the largest specimen of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid, ever caught.
Experts believe the creatures, which have long been one of the most mysterious denizens of the deep ocean, may grow even bigger — up to 46-feet long.
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