Giant Squid Read for public Display

The world's most massive invertebrate ever discovered, a 1,091-pound colossal dead squid measuring nearly 14 feet in length, was purposefully ripped and stitched before a team hoisted the hefty cephalopod onto a gurney-like contraption and placed her into a new tank for exhibit.

A few findings about the enormous squid were made during yesterday's more than six-hour-long tank transfer ordeal.

Bruce Marshall, Collection Manager Mollusca of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, where the specimen is housed, told Discovery News that he and his colleagues found "hundreds of thousands of tiny white eggs, each about 1 millimeter in diameter, grouped in clusters" after the researchers intentionally ripped open the individual's mantle.

They removed a tiny sample of the eggs for display in a separate jar and then delicately stitched the squid back up with white linen thread.

If she had been alive, the invertebrate could have looked directly at the team of scientists because, during the move, the researchers determined the squid's eyes would have enabled it to look in a forward, straight direction instead of only seeing things from either side of its head, as some fish do.

"When we turned the specimen we confirmed that the eyes were oriented antero-laterally," Marshall said. "Other squid have eyes on the side of their head, but they can swivel their eyes so they can see forwards and sideways."

After touching the squid, Marshall and his team also learned that the squid's flesh has toughened since it was first accidentally landed by a New Zealand fishing vessel, the San Aspiring, in the Ross Sea in 2007. Several months of soaking in a holding tank filled with 1,585 gallons of toxic formalin solution turned the once squishy, slimy squid into something more like poisonous ceviche.

During the move, Te Papa lead technician Mark Fenwick commented, "To my touch, the arms are now firm and don't 'give' in the way they did when we first defrosted her."

He added, "I have this irrational fear that she might come to life at any moment!"

Fenwick's fears were unwarranted, as the squid tank transfer went without a hitch. The team drained the formalin solution from the old tank and rinsed and soaked the squid with water. They then donned waders and actually climbed into the tank to turn the specimen by hand in order to ready it for hoisting.

A large, heavy duty plastic sheet was passed under the specimen, which was then lifted by gantry hoist from the fixing tank to the display tank, which is now slowly being filled with a propylene glycol solution that includes a bacteria, mold and fungi-preventing biocide.

The squid will remain in this new tank in Te Papa's specimen preparation facility awaiting a planned December public exhibit.

"The delay is due to the time needed for preparation of the display, including preparing mounts for the specimen in the tank and trial of the glycol preservation process," Marshall explained.

The team of "squid movers" seemed tense when the move first began but, fueled by chocolate bars, they began to relax throughout the successful process. A comment made by Te Papa conservator Robert Clendon summed up the researchers' palpable relief.

As he said, "the now-preserved squid is much easier than we thought to move."