Giant Squid Washed Ashore in Australia

twofish writes "Yahoo News is reporting that the carcass of a giant squid, nearly 8 meters in length, washed ashore in Australia on Wednesday. The creature's mantle is over two meters in length and almost a full meter across. The creature, stretched out, is in total more than eight meters long. 'Scientists would take samples from the creature, identified by state parks officials as an Architeuthis, which can grow to more than 10 meters (33 feet) in length and weigh more than 275 kilograms (606 pounds). The Tasmanian animal was 250 kg ... Giant squid, once believed to be mythical despite occasional sightings by mariners, feed on fish and other squid. Last year, fishermen off the Falkland Islands caught a complete animal measuring 8.62 meters.'"

It's Reuters, not Yahoo News

[Pap22]

It's only written on the page 3 times. Give credit where it is due.

Re:8 Meters?

[iluvcapra]

The mantle, which is to say the body is two meters long. The other 6 is tentacles.

Re:So many lately

[Choad Namath]

From Wikipedia:

Many scientists who have studied squid mass strandings believe that they are cyclical and predictable, but the length of time between strandings is not yet known. A period of 90 years between mass strandings has been proposed by Frederick Aldrich, an Architeuthis specialist, who used this value to correctly predict a relatively small stranding that occurred between 1964 and 1966. By and large, however, squid strandings remain a yet unsolved problem.

It is strange, but it doesn't seem to be a new phenomenon.

New Zealand != Australia

[GrahamCox]

The creature was actually washed up in New Zealand, and was then moved to a facility in Tasmania for dissection. For those who are geographically challenged, New Zealand is a separate country some distance from Australia.