 Anyone who has read Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (or seen a movie version) knows what an imaginary giant squid looks like. The real one lives in many parts of the world’s oceans, including here in Kaikoura, but no scientist has ever seen a live one. Information about the squid has been literally pieced together from chunks of squid found in sperm whales’ stomachs and in fishing nets. Some relatively whole giant squids have also been washed up on beaches, but few intact ones has ever been seen and examined by a scientist. Other clues to its size: big sucker marks found on the skin of sperm whales.
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