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A New Zealand fishing boat has caught what could prove to be the world’s biggest known colossal squid, said the New Zealand fisheries minister, Jim Anderton. The squid — colossal is its species name, or more scientifically, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni — an estimated 990 pounds and 39 feet long, about the length of a school bus, took two hours to land in Antarctica’s Ross Sea. The fishermen were catching Chilean sea bass, and the squid was feeding on one “when it was hauled from the deep,” Mr. Anderton said. The crew and a fisheries official estimated the length and weight. Now frozen, the squid awaits official measurements. But if the estimates hold, the squid would be 330 pounds heavier than the next biggest specimen ever found. Colossal squid, one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep ocean, are found in Antarctic waters and are not related to giant squid, which are found around the coast of New Zealand and are not as heavy as the colossal. “This is going to draw phenomenal interest,” said Steve O’Shea, a squid expert at the Auckland University of Technology. “If calamari rings were made from the squid, they would be the size of tractor tires.”
