14 DAY TRIAL // This past Wednesday, May 13, the lifeless body of a giant squid was discovered lying on a beach in the town of Kaikoura on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
The colossal marine creature, photos of which are available in the gallery below, didn't get to spend all that much time sunbathing. Rather, it was removed from the beach and taken to a local wildlife center.
Word has it that the giant squid is now kept in a freezer at the Kaikoura Marine Center and Aquarium. The fridge is see-through, so folks visiting the wildlife center can have a look at it.
“Now frozen on display at the aquarium. Some samples will so far be going to both Auckland and Otago universities for further research,” the marine center writes in a Facebook post.
The creature's body is said to measure about 2 meters (roughly 6.5 feet) in length. Its largest tentacle, on the other hand, is estimated to be 5 meters (approximately 16.5 feet) long.
This brings us to the grand total of 7 meters (23 feet) from head to appendage. As if this weren't scary enough, wildlife researchers say that its eyes each measure 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) in diameter.
Not the biggest squid in the books
This squid that washed ashore in New Zealand this past Wednesday might be big, but it's by no means the absolute biggest wildlife researchers have so far laid eyes on.
The largest squid ever documented was caught in the waters of the Antarctica back in 2007. It was a male and weighed an astounding 453 kilograms (about 1,000 pounds).
Sometime after the capture of this specimen, the world's second biggest squid on record was pulled from Antarctica's Ross Sea. This other creature tipped the scale at 350 kilograms (some 770 pounds).
Interestingly, an autopsy carried out in September 2014 revealed that this second largest squid caught in Antarctica was on the verge of delivering a new generation at the time when it was caught.
Thus, the animal was carrying a few eggs in its body and was close to laying them, the wildlife researchers who autopsied it wrote in their report.
