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Univ. of Fla. / FMNH
A 25-foot-long giant squid is splayed out on a tarp after it was picked up by a fishing crew over the weekend.
Florida fishermen snared a real-life sea monster over the weekend: a giant squid measuring 25 feet in length.
"It's really, really, really rare to get giant squids because they're so huge, and live so deep," John Slapcinsky, a collection manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told me. For museum workers and scientists who specialize in giant squids, this specimen is quite the catch.
Jeff Gage / Univ. of Fla. / FMNH
University of Florida researcher Roger Portell injects preservative into the giant squid.
The animal was bobbing in the water when the fisherman chanced upon it on Sunday. They hauled it onto their boat, put it on ice, and brought it to shore. There, they alerted the Florida Fish and Wildlife conservation commission, who called in the Florida Museum of Natural History.
"I thought we definitely need to bring it in, because no one’s going to believe us if we don't," Robert Benz, one of the original squid finders, said in a press release. "I didn’t want to leave it out there and just let the sharks eat it."
Somewhere along the way, the squid died.
It's now been relocated to the Florida Museum of Natural History, where Slapcinsky and his colleagues are preserving the massive invertebrate. "Soft bodied squids spoil easily," Slapcinsky told me.
The squid will be put through quite the regimen over the next month, and will be injected with and bathed in a cocktail of preservatives. These will kill the bacteria in the body of the squid and firm up the soft tissue of the animal, Slapcinsky explained.
Univ. of Fla. / FMNH
A tentacle coils out from the dead squid's body. Studying the creature and sequencing its DNA should help scientists determine how various breeds of deep-sea squid are related.
Because they're so rarely observed in the wild, or found dead (they get eaten pretty quickly), there's a lot that scientists don't know about the behavior of the enormous animals, like how they reproduce or what they eat. Also, a debate continues about whether giant squids make up a single species, or several, and Slapcisnky hopes that DNA analysis of this new squid will have some answers.
It's not yet clear if the squid will make it into a museum exhibit, Slapcinsky says — the museum may not have the right equipment or the space to show off the spineless specimen. But it will be available for squid researchers to visit, to take a closer look.
A large squid is hauled to shore after being found off Florida's coast. WPTV's Jon Shainman reports.
More on giant squids:
- Scientists capture giant squid on camera
- Military studies squid camouflage
- Hawaiian squid carries a built in light
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science at msnbc.com. Find her on Twitter and join our conversation on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.
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And our local seafood special today was Calamari Ring appetizers..........
Cool! Some of the best science ends up coming from accidental finds like this one.
um HELLO? any comment, dear journalists, on WHY the squid was dying in the waters of Florida? Anyone wonder?
Well you see son, being a peninsula Florida is surrounded by ocean. Oceans are the habitat of giant squids.
um HELLO? any comment, dear Nat, on WHY the article read that the squid died during transportation, not in the water? Any wonder?
I think Nat was asking why it was "dying" in the water, not dead in the water. Perhaps it wanted clothing of a different color?
Maybe it didn't like breathing BP oil and Corexit?
um, Iced?
Nat, First off when the fishermen found it(NOT caught it) it was FLOATING!! from this we can surmise that it's health was compromised earlier. These are deep water animals. Don't be so fast to blame man/pollution.(although it can't be ruled out) Perhaps it had a 'run-in' with it's natural predator, a whale?
I think they found a dead one washed up on the shore of Japan or China recently, well after the tsunami. It would be interesting to know if there were any links, but it was probably just coincidence.
Idiots. Nat is simply asking why it was dying, in the water, when they found it. Good grief. Logical question. Old age? Pollution? Predator? Age? All interesting questions.
Congratulations on murdering the last of its kind!
I could swear It was reported as 23 ft at first. This marks the first time in mankind's history where a fisherman underestimated his catches length. :-)
um what is wrong with letting the sharks eat it. it is after all a sea creature and a natural part of the sharks diet. and i agree with Nat-1514765 why was it dying in the waters off florida? you know the BP oil spill last year and all that.
If you search on "dead giant squid" you will find one or two articles every year or two somewhere in the world. It seems to be uncommon but not unusual.
This is why I don't swim in the ocean. At least on land I'm on top of the food chain......
Unless you make millions you're on the bottom of the food chain with the rest of us, sorry.
Human sharks are the most dangerous kind....
Aarrggghh!! There be monsters in them thar waters!
Was it missing an eye?
So, an eyeball was found on the beach in Florida and now a Giant Squid....scientists wondering about this eyeball and where it came....anyone thinking coincidence? or that this eyeball belongs to this squid.
Or the squid was struggling in a fight with something and ripped its opponents eye out :O
The article says after the ill or injured squid was pulled from the water ( which it needs to breath) and then put on ice (lowering it's body temperature to near freezing) on the boat that "Somewhere along the way the squid died." Duh - ya think? Man"kind" is often not very kind to other creatures!
It was DYING. Its value to science supercedes its right to a long slow death in the ocean.
If the museum doesn't have room I'm sure some marine museum has space and would love to have it.
Just out of curiosity, was it missing a giant eye????
sorry, didn't read all the comments.. I guess this was already asked...
Just wondering....Since the Giant Squid is a Deep Water dweller it's possible that this squid is Collateral Damage from the testing of the newest weapon by the Navy. Beached wales and dolphins have been found all around the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean from the Americas to England.
I remember when "giant squid" were a total myth. Now all of a sudden people are catching them.
as Eye see it Lochness monster is in Florida on Vacation and lost an Eye looking at the Girls on the Beach!!
As big as this squid is, the REALLY big ones swim in far deeper waters. It's not likely we'll ever see one, the enormous pressures down there effectively confine them to the depths they call home.
it's really not as big as many grow to be. Bring on the Cocktail Sauce and beer !
Was the Giant Squid missing an eyeball, there was one found on the beach in Florida the size of a baseball and no one knows where it came from. It looked like a blue eye.
"Somewhere along the way it died." Probably when you took it out of the water.
Seems we are killing our Enviroment and most species at a faster rate.
Not sure of squids, but an octopuss can live in ice water and no water for 10 or 12 hours and still pop the lid off an icechest and whip the family poodle...I speak from experience.