Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Seafood For Dinner, Anyone?


No doubt some of you have heard about the huge squid which is being slowly defrosted in Wellington, New Zealand, after being thoughtfully snap-frozen by fishermen upon being landed on a fishing boat in Antarctica. This is the largest invertebrate in the world, speculated to be the fearsome 'Kraken' from Norse legends.

You have to wonder what it was like trying to squeeze a 495 kilo, ten metre long colossal squid – described as a “gelatinous blob with seriously evil arms” – into a freezer. Who exactly decided the thing was definitely dead and so volunteerd to have the first shove?? Wouldn’t be me, I can tell you that. Take a look at the photo above - would you dare to grab an armful of that and heave it on board? With eyes “the size of dinner plates” and known to be “nasty, aggressive type of squid” this is no Nemo-type pet you take home to give your sisters kid for her birthday. Consider this – this monster specimen is supposedly just a baby, with estimates based on the size of colossal squid beaks found in the bellies of dead whales leading biologists to estimate that the adult ones reach at least three quarters of a tonne in weight.
Scientists at the Te Papa museum, who are slowly defrosting the squid in a tank of salt water to prevent the outside rotting before the inside is thawed enough to conduct research on it, have said that “if it was cut into squid rings, they would be size of tractor tyres, although they would taste like ammonia.” Hmmm, tasty. I knew there was a good reason why I don’t eat squid.


If you’d like to take a peek at this freakish fiend from the deep it will be going on display in Welington at the fabulous Te Papa museum in a HUGE tank of formalin.

Check out the museums website for more info. There was even a Squid Cam while it thawed out. Seriously.

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