19-foot-long rare giant squid caught off Louisiana coast

A rare giant squid was captured in the trawling nets of a research vessel at the end of July off the coast of Louisiana, scientists are reporting. The 19.5-foot long monster weighed in at 103 pounds.

Unfortunately, the creature, the stuff of mariners nightmares for centuries, did not survive the change in depth when the net was brought up. The Smithsonian Institution is now studying the squid. The squid was netted at a depth of 1,500 feet and was alive when captured. It is the first Gulf of Mexico giant squid scientists have had available to study since 1954. Squid expert Michael Vecchione said

"We don't study the deep water much. When we do, we find pretty spectacular things. This is a good example of that"

The scientists say that this squid was a juvenile. The scientists on board the vessel that was trawling the Gulf of Mexico were actually conducting a pilot study called Sperm Whale Acoustic Prey Study. The study is a joint venture between the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The purpose of the study is to examine of the diet of sperm whales. Not much is known about the giant squid, mainly because the creature lives in deeper waters. Scientists have known that giant squid, also dubbed Architeuthis dux, could be found in the Gulf of Mexico because they found remains of the animals in the stomachs of other animals, such as Sperm whales. Similar findings have been reported from the waters of the Caribbean and the Florida Keys. Michael Vecchione is also the Director of NOAA's Fisheries Services' National Systemics Laboratory. He told the press that

“giant squid have been found more commonly in areas of the world where there are deep-water fisheries, such as Spain and New Zealand, but this is the first time one has actually been captured during scientific research in the Gulf of Mexico. This find illustrates how little we know about what is swimming around in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico."

While 38 per cent of the Gulf of Mexico is comprised of shallow water, there are "abyssal areas" where the water is 3,000 feet meters or more (the exact depth is not yet known). Sperm whales are the largest whales with teeth. One adult whale eats approximately one ton of food a day, and "medium-sized deep sea squid" seem to make up the majority of the whales' diet.