850-pound giant squid emerges, causing a ripple of unease among the spectators

Giant squid sightings may have inspired stories of the Kraken, a ship-destroying creature from Scandinavian mythology. True giant squid live at a depth of at least 900 meters below the surface of the ocean and do not attack ships.

Scientists still have a lot to learn about the life of giant squid. So far in the past 10 years, only twice have researchers been able to capture footage of these elusive giants in their natural environment.

The largest giant squid ever found was nearly 13 meters long, including its tentacles. However, scientists estimate that the species can grow up to 20 meters long, based on the size of the giant squid beaks found in the stomachs of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), which hunt giant squid.

Giant squid have eight tentacles, with spines that help grab and pull prey toward their beaks. The squid’s beak is made of hard chitin, a material similar to the exoskeleton of an insect, with sharp edges perfect for cutting prey into bite-sized pieces.

Giant squid are extremely large, but so far scientists have not determined whether they are the largest mollusk. The giant squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) lives in the Southern Ocean at depths of at least 1000 meters.

One of the lesser-known giant squid, kept at the Te Papa Tongarewa museum (New Zealand), weighs up to 450 kg, while the previous giant squid was thought to weigh only about 275 kg.

According to Smithson, giant squid can reach a length of 14 meters or more because they have two long tentacles.

Giant squid are most commonly recorded in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, near South Africa and New Zealand.

Some scientists argue that the giant squid should be divided into several different species, including separate species for populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans. However, a 2013 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B analyzed 43 collected giant squid specimens found no genetic diversity. This suggests that the giant squid is a single species and alternates through migration.

This species is solitary, and scientists are not sure how males find females to breed. The researchers hypothesized that males and females may only occasionally encounter each other, with the female collecting and storing sperm from multiple males. However, a female caught off the coast of Japan in 2020 had only sperm from a single male, suggesting that giant squid could indeed be monogamous.

Scientists are also not sure how squid mating occurs. They hypothesized that the male placed his sperm on the female squid’s tentacles, suspecting the female could release the eggs and hold them when they were fertilized in the water.