Giant Squid Washed Ashore in Australia

twofish writes "Yahoo News is reporting that the carcass of a giant squid, nearly 8 meters in length, washed ashore in Australia on Wednesday. The creature's mantle is over two meters in length and almost a full meter across. The creature, stretched out, is in total more than eight meters long. 'Scientists would take samples from the creature, identified by state parks officials as an Architeuthis, which can grow to more than 10 meters (33 feet) in length and weigh more than 275 kilograms (606 pounds). The Tasmanian animal was 250 kg ... Giant squid, once believed to be mythical despite occasional sightings by mariners, feed on fish and other squid. Last year, fishermen off the Falkland Islands caught a complete animal measuring 8.62 meters.'"

Comments

Stick

[Eudial]

Poke it with a stick! Poke it with a stick! I dare you to poke it with a stick!

I love squid

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, I have a lot of cache.

It's Reuters, not Yahoo News

[Pap22]

It's only written on the page 3 times. Give credit where it is due.

My squid

[Penguinshit]

is 3128 cm long.

Translation for Linux fanbois

[tttonyyy]

A proxy with a memory leak has segfaulted at Australia's ioctl interface.

Debuggers are taking core samples for analysis.

Delicacy to Cleaning agent

[American Scum]

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/squ id_highlights.html "When a giant squid washes ashore, Roper hurries to the site. He takes many photographs and measures the length and width of the squid's body the length of the tentacles and arms, and the width of the eyes. He will add the information to his collection of clues. One clue was discovered at a party when Roper and two other scientists cooked a piece of giant squid. They expected a giant delicacy But it was awful. The taste reminded them of ammonia, a strong-smelling substance. They tested the tissue and found a lot of ammonia. They think that ammonia makes the giant squid less dense than seawater, so it won't sink. It can easily stay at a good level for finding food without constantly swimming and wasting its energy "

So many lately

[LinuxInDallas]

I'm I the only one who thinks it's strange that all of a sudden there is a relatively large number of giant squid washing up on beaches? We've gone from barely hearing about them to every few months seeing a dead one appear on a beach.

Re:So many lately

[Choad Namath]

From Wikipedia:

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 yet unsolved problem. It is strange, but it doesn't seem to be a new phenomenon.

Screw that...

[crovira]

Besides that, two foot wide calimari rings probably end up tasting like erasers.

Re:Fast food

[niktemadur]

I used to dislike calamari, but then a chef friend prepared some in his special recipe (ginger, orange, garlic, chili powder, beet, and a few other secret ingredients), and then I realized I'd never had proper calamari before, as this was sensational. I used to dislike beet, too, but in this dish I really enjoyed it, so this guy demolished two barriers of mine in one spectacular stroke. Since then, I've had blind faith in whatever he cooks up.

Then a year later, I tried some fried calamari, spanish style, and once again I was amazed.

Octopus grilled in butter and garlic, with fresh mexican sauce and flour tortillas is really damn good, too.

And yes, you're right about it having to be fresh, as if isn't, it's like chewing on a piece of bleached rubber.
So definitely, rule number one: never buy frozen squid or octopus.

New Zealand != Australia

[GrahamCox]

The creature was actually washed up in New Zealand, and was then moved to a facility in Tasmania for dissection. For those who are geographically challenged, New Zealand is a separate country some distance from Australia.