Hovering in the ocean\u2019s inky depths, battling sperm whales with powerful tentacles and a razor-sharp beak, the giant squid is one of the ocean\u2019s great mysteries. This elusive \u201ckraken\u201d has haunted our imaginations for centuries, inspiring books and films. In real life, though, the beast is usually seen dead and washed ashore. It was only in 2012 that a Japanese crew filmed the first images of a live giant squid in the deep sea. For those without submersibles, here are a few places to see a monster squid.<\/p>\n
In November 1878, fishermen near Glover\u2019s Harbour spotted a tangled red mass thrashing in the shallows. Using a thick rope, they hauled the mysterious creature ashore\u2014it was a giant squid. Ever practical, locals measured the supersized squid\u201417 meters, tentacles included\u2014before chopping it up for dog food. In 2001, artist Don Foulds recreated the squid in a life-size concrete model. The attraction, which is also featured on a postage stamp, has its own annual festival.<\/p>\n
Frederick Aldrich pursued giant squid with an obsessive passion. The renowned marine biologist from Memorial University was a world authority on giant squid and examined 15 different carcasses during his lifetime. One of the last specimens he studied, now preserved in a tank at the museum The Rooms, presented a rare research opportunity. It arrived on shore with its eyes intact, making Aldrich one of the first to examine the creature\u2019s dinner plate-sized peepers.<\/p>\n
The Te Papa Museum is the only place the curious can see a preserved colossal squid, the giant squid\u2019s shorter, heavier cousin. This 495-kilogram whopper was caught in the Antarctic in 2007, when the crew of the San Aspiring<\/em> hauled up a heaving longline and discovered the squid snacking on a snagged toothfish. The squid was dying, so the crew did what they could to preserve it for science. It took two hours to secure the squid in a cargo net and lift it by crane into the ship\u2019s freezer hold. Back in New Zealand, the one-of-a-kind specimen was delivered to the government. Te Papa\u2019s examination of what was dubbed the \u201csquidcicle\u201d was webcast to squid enthusiasts around the world.<\/p>\n The two giant squid on display in the Smithsonian Museum\u2019s Sant Ocean Hall took a complicated journey from Spain to Washington. Moving two behemoths across the Atlantic presented a logistical challenge. With no professional squid movers to consult, scientists asked the tacticians of the United States Navy. But a boat wasn\u2019t the safest way to move a tank of toxic preservative, so they enlisted the United States Air Force. \u201cOperation calamari\u201d flew the squid in a C-17 cargo plane typically used to move a different sort of tank, the armored kind.<\/p>\n The Natural History Museum\u2019s resident giant squid inspired an apocalyptic squid cult. Sort of. British author China Mi\u00e9ville\u2019s 2010 novel, Kraken<\/em>, tells of the specimen\u2019s theft from the museum by fanatics who worship giant squid as gods. The reality is less bizarre. Named Archie after the squid\u2019s scientific name, Architeuthis<\/em>, this female was caught in the Falkland Islands in 2004. It took 12 scientists to haul all 8.62 meters of Archie into her permanent home\u2014a formalin-filled tank in the museum\u2019s Darwin Centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Giant squid are so elusive they seem mythical. Here are five places that prove they\u2019re real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12966,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"hero_video_url":null,"hero_video_caption":"","deck":"Giant squid are so elusive they seem mythical. Here are five places that prove they\u2019re real.","authors_group":[{"by_group":"by","contributors_group":[15595]}],"word_count_override":"","podbean1":"","podbean2":"","redirect":"","geolocation":null,"related":[17200,16864],"twitterimage":19854,"facebookimage":19446,"twitterdescription":"","edited":"","factchecked":"","code":"","no_old_story_flag":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/custom_quick"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20171,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16744\/revisions\/20171"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16864"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/17200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Natural History Museum, London, England<\/strong><\/h2>\n