Squid Invasion!! Fellow a2kers in CALIFORNIA! RUN FOR YOUR LIFES!

Me too, me too... tinier ones, though.

And I agree wholeheartedly. Especially with a spicy tomato sauce for dipping!

Sometimes, in colossal squid language, the word for sperm whale is dinner.

my bullshit meter is off the scale here
there are no decapus in the southern ocean as they are a favorite food of aquatic drop bears.
Ever notice how big things get when its a lone sailor?

The largest giant squid ever measured was discovered at Timble Tickle on November 2, 1878. Three fisherman were working not far off shore when they noticed a mass floating on the ocean they took to be wreckage. They investigated and found a giant squid had run aground. Using their anchor as a grappling hook they snagged the still living body and made it fast to a tree. When the tide went out the creature was left high and dry. When the animal died, the fishermen measured it and then chopped it up for dog meat. The body of the squid was twenty feet from tail to beak. The longer tentacles measured thirty five feet and were tipped with four inch suckers.

Japanese scientists led by Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori succeeded during a expedition to the Pacific Ocean some 600 south of Tokyo. The squid they photographed was approximately forty-six feet long.

Fishermen in New Zealand may have captured the largest Colossal squid ever recorded. The squid was reported to be 10 meters (33 feet) in length and took more than two hours to land.
They are believed to grow up to 14 meters (45 feet) in length

Standard Length (SL) is the length of a squid excluding the tentacles; in Architeuthis this measure very rarely exceeds 5m.

The rest of the animal's length, to a total length of 13m, is made up of the two long tentacles. Of more than 130 specimens that we have examined, none has exceeded these figures


REFERENCES

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Clarke, M.R. 1962. The identification of cephalopod "beaks" and the relationship between beak size and total body weight. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology 8(10): 419-480.

Clarke, M. 1966. A review of the systematics and ecology of oceanic squids. Advances in Marine Biology 4: 91"300.

Clarke, M.R. 1980. Cephalopoda in the diet of sperm whales of the southern hemisphere and their bearing on sperm whale biology. Discovery Reports 37: 324 pp.

Clarke, M.R.; MacLeod, N. 1982. Cephalopod remains from the stomachs of sperm whales caught in the Tasman Sea. Memoirs of the National Museum Victoria 43: 25-42.

Clarke, M.R.; Roper, C.F.E. 1998. Cephalopods represented by beaks in the stomach of a sperm whale stranded at Paekakariki, North Island, New Zealand. South African Journal of Marine Science 20: 129-133.

Engeser, T.S.; Clarke, M.R. 1988. Cephalopod hooks, both recent and fossil. The Mollusca 12: 133"150.

Fiscus, C.H.; Rice, D.W.; Wolman, A.A. 1989. Cephalopods from the stomachs of sperm whales taken off California. NOAA Technical Report NMFS 83: 1-12.

Gomez-Villota F 2007. Sperm whale diet in New Zealand. Unpublished MAppSc thesis. Division of Applied Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. 221 p.

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Imber, M.J. 1978. The squid families Cranchiidae and Gonatidae (Cephalopoda: Teuthoidea) in the New Zealand region. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 5: 445-484.

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In Albany in West Australia the whaling station found a giant tooth in a single bite mark that suggested a prehistoric shark. The experts were reluctant to write it up because of ridicule from lacking a specimen.

In the case of sabre tooth cats, they have evolved and become extict from big cats up to 8 times, at least. It depends on the size of the game. What makes you certain that isnt happening with squids, a far simpler creature ?

More people have walked on the moon than have been to the bottom of the ocean. Are you aware of "extinct"creatures that have been found in the oceans ? Are you also aware of the platypus ? The first person to return with the body of one was accused of sewing it together so cleverly, you couldnt find any evidence. The giraffe was "discovered" many hundreds of years after the Romans knew of its existence.

Personally, I believe the watch officer. If ones of this size were becoming extinct then we would see little of them. It would explain certain tales in the past of giant squid attacking ships. Most whaling stations around the world reported giant sucker marks on whales but given the need for hard evidence, no one fully documented all the cases but if they had that would have been evidence by itself. Given the damage being done to the oceans I wouldnt be surprised if we had lost our chance to see squids this big.

Should we believe you if you had seen it ?

Relax and have another toke bloke.