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Giant Squid: Science
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Collections
200,000 Cephalopods and Counting
Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History are building a National Cephalopod Collection. It already totals about 200,000 preserved specimens collected worldwide—including the most diverse collection of squids found in the world. The museum’s collection also includes the holotypes for 164 cephalopod species, including 66 squid species. Holotypes are the specimens that were used by scientists to formally describe and name a new species.
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Research
Giant Squid Caught on Camera
This is the first photograph of a live giant squid (Architeuthis) in its natural habitat.
On September 30, 2004, two Japanese researchers, Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera and Dr. Kyoichi Mori, made history by photographing an 8-meter (26-foot) long giant squid—alive. The scientists had suspended a long line from their research vessel with a camera and bait attached to hooks. Suddenly, about 900 meters (2,952 feet) beneath the surface of the Pacific, a giant squid snagged its tentacles on the hooks. The camera snapped more than 550 underwater images. After the squid escaped, the researchers discovered that one of its tentacles had broken off. When they pulled the 5.5-meter (18-foot) long tentacle onto the boat, it gripped the deck as well as Dr. Kubodera’s fingers. “The grip felt sticky,” said Dr. Kubodera. Two years later, his team achieved another first by capturing a live giant squid on film.
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Giant Squid on Display
Everything we know about the biology of giant squid comes from studying specimens. There are about a dozen giant squid on display in museums and aquaria around the world. Two are at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. This female was caught in a fisherman’s net off the coast of Spain in 2005. It was probably 2-3 years old and, when alive, 11 meters (36 feet) long with tentacles that extended 6.7 meters (22 feet). It weighed more than 150 kilograms (330 pounds). Since then it has shrunk considerably. But, at 7.6 meters (25 feet) long, it is still an impressive sight. This specimen and a smaller male are on loan to the Smithsonian from the Coordinadora para el Estudio y la Protección de last Especies Marinas, which preserves giant squid specimens from the waters of northern Spain.
Technology
In Search of Giant Squid
If you want to see a live giant squid, you have to go to where it lives. That happens to be the inky black, icy cold waters 500 meters (1,650 feet) to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) below the ocean’s surface—not a very convenient place to watch wildlife. Dr. Clyde Roper, a Smithsonian zoologist, has tried several techniques to track down giant squid in their natural habitat. With help from the National Geographic Society, he attached a small video camera called Crittercam to the heads of sperm whales. He sent a camera-equipped, robotic submersible called an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to search for giant squid. And he has dived thousands of feet alone in a deep sea submersible. So far, no luck. But Dr. Roper hasn’t given up. He plans to use new techniques, including supersensitive sonar, in future expeditions.
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Scientists
Dr. Clyde Roper, Giant Squid Expert
Dr. Clyde Roper grew up close to the ocean and was a lobster fisherman before going to graduate school, where he studied squid. “I was hooked,” he says. Dr. Roper is especially passionate about giant squid and has traveled the world studying dead specimens on beaches and in museums and searching for living squid. In his quest to learn as much as possible about giant squid, Roper has been bitten by several species of squids and tasted a piece of cooked giant squid. “It was really awful,” he says. A zoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Roper has discovered new cephalopod species, published more than 150 scientific papers, and co-authored the Catalog of Cephalopods of the World. He hasn’t yet seen a living giant squid—but he hasn’t given up on this long-held dream.
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