Giant Squid

Architeuthis dux (Steenstrup, 1857)

What have we here? It is a giant squid. How many arms has it? Like other squid species, they have eight arms and two longer feeding tentacles. They help them bring food to their beak-like mouths. This specimen’s tentacles are missing. The tentacles included, it had a length of seven meters. Now this is only a small male, but the females may be as long as 20m. You do not want to encounter such a beast while swimming. However, you do not have to be afraid that this would happen, for they live in the deep, where no man can come, except maybe with a bathyscaphe.

Occasionally, warm water causes a giant squid to rise to the surface. There it is unable to return to the deeps. A giant squid's blood cannot carry oxygen well in warm water, so if it is forced to the surface, it will suffocate. This probably happened to our specimen too. Then it came into the net of a fisherman from Urk (Urk 56). And through him it came into our possession.

Giant squid live in the very deep inky black ocean. Scientists think they live at depths of between 200 and 1000 metres.

Their eyes can have the size of footballs. They are the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, extremely useful for spotting prey. The eye is missing in the photo, but a big hole gives way its position.
Teeth-filled suckers cover their eight arms and the clubs of their two extra-long tentacles. The suckers are used to grab and drag prey.
A razor-sharp beak (black in the photo) tears into prey such as other squid, fish, or crustaceans.

They have two predators: the sperm whale and the sleeper shark. (Somniosus pacificus Bigelow & Schroeder, 1944)

When a sperm whale attacks the giant squid, the squids defend themselves heavily. Most of the times they have no chance, for the sperm whales hunt in groups. When it comes to a one to one fight, a heroic struggle can follow.

A baby sperm whale could very well loose such a fight and be drowned by the squid.