How big is the king squid?

The king squid, also known as cuttlefish, usually lives in deep-sea areas. Squid is a mollusk, mainly found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, with an estimated length of about 20 meters. It is also the legendary deep-sea giant. Let's take a look at how big the king squid is.

How big is the king squid?

The king squid is the second largest squid in the world (the first is the giant squid, which is generally 2cm larger than the king squid, and more than 4m), with a body of 18m and 20m. Generally speaking, the young king squid is 810 meters long, the adult king squid can be up to 20 meters long, and the largest king squid can grow to 80 meters or more and weigh 50 tons. The eyes are amazingly large, with a diameter of about 35 centimeters, and the diameter of the sucker is more than 8 centimeters.

Population distribution of cuttlefish

The king squid lives in the deep waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is distributed all over the world, which is related to the continental shelf and islands. It is distributed in the North Atlantic (especially Newfoundland, Norway, the North Sea, the British Isles, the Azores and Madeira Islands), the South Atlantic waters of South Africa, the waters around Japan in the North Pacific, the waters around New Zealand and Australia in the Southeast Pacific, and the waters around the South Pacific Ocean. It is rarely distributed in tropical and polar high latitudes.

What does the king squid eat?

The king squid has a ferocious temperament, feeds on fish and invertebrates, and can fight with giant whales. It is often reported abroad that the king squid fights with sperm whales. According to records, a king squid was once seen clinging to the sperm whale with its stout tentacles and sucker, while the sperm whale bit the tail of the king squid with all its strength. The two beasts of the sea tumbled violently, causing turbid waves to soar into the sky, and then both sank to the bottom of the water. There have been cases in which the king squid clamped the whale's nostrils with tentacles, suffocating the whale to death. The king squid's weapon is ten "arms", which are covered with round suckers with a small jagged edge that can suck out the flesh of the sperm whale, leaving many round scars on the sperm whale (long scratches are left by the king acid squid).

History of the discovery of king squid

In November 1861, the French warship Aliton, on its way from Cadiz, Spain to Teneriffe Island, encountered a sea monster 5'6 meters long and two meters long with tentacles. 'i think that's the big octopus that has caused a lot of controversy and that many people think is fictional, 'Captain Sheeyer wrote later. Sieyer and the crew harpooned it and put a rope around its tail. But the monster danced wildly, breaking the harpoon and running away, leaving only a piece of meat weighing about 40 pounds on the rope.

In December 1946, the Brunswick tanker, 150m long and carrying 15000 tons, was attacked by king squid between Hawaii and Samoa. The more than 20-meter-long king squid suddenly darted out of the deep water and quickly caught up with the oil tanker with a speed of 19 kilometers per hour. When it swam with the ship for a while, it rowed a semicircle like lightning, ran around the ship from the front to the right, rushed to the ship, clung to the side of the ship, and slammed the outer shell hard. It was obvious that the king squid was trying to grasp the metal surface of the smooth hull. But unfortunately, its body kept slipping toward the stern and finally hit the propeller and suffered a fatal blow.

In November 1978, three fishermen in Newfoundland, Canada, found a huge marine animal stranded on the beach because of low tide. The fishermen said that it was 7 meters long, some tentacles were more than 11 meters long, and the diameter of the sucker on the tentacles was 10 centimeters. the eyes are as big as a face. The fishermen hooked it with hooks, and the monster struggled for a while and soon died.

In January 2003, the king squid appeared in the waters off the coast of Portugal, entangled in the racing ship participating in the Jules Vern Global Yacht Grand Prix, which really frightened the French crew on board. However, there was no danger, the king squid automatically flinched and let the crew live.

In January 2014, the plot of King squid, which may occur in movies and science fiction, has become a reality through the efforts of Japanese biologists with NHK and Discovery Channel. After 1000 voyages and more than 400 hours of diving search missions, they finally photographed the giant squid. Squid expert Tsunemi Kubodera, who was involved in the project, said they followed the behemoth to a depth of 900m before watching him move on to a deeper sea canyon. It can be seen from the photo that the giant squid is shining all over its body and its eyes are clearly visible. It is estimated to be 8 meters long, but the two longest tentacles are missing.