A colossal catch of calamari

You may have seen one late at night while watching a black-and-white science-fiction horror movie, but dated special effects do no justice to the larger-than-life giant squid that is on campus right now.

The Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Science at the UW came into possession of a 12-and-a-half-foot giant squid that was caught by accident off the coast of Alaska. Since then, numerous students have stopped by to visit the mammoth cephalopod at its new frozen home in a fisheries building south of campus.

According to Ted Pietsch, professor and curator of fishes, the squid is an extremely rare find.

"This is the first one I've ever seen in my whole life," he said. "They live very deep and they're very elusive. This is only the second one the fisherman who caught it has seen in his whole career."

Since they are very sensitive to light and vibrations in the water, giant squid will usually leave an area long before a diver or underwater observation device has a chance to go near them.

The fishermen who caught it were searching for black cod at a depth of about 3,000 feet, said Pietsch. After hooking a halibut and reeling it in, the giant squid attacked their catch and entangled itself around the hook. They decided to gut the squid in hopes to sell it as food -- but upon reaching shore, they learned nobody would buy it.

"Nobody can eat these things, they're tough and they taste terrible," said Pietsch. "So somebody suggested they give it to science (and) somebody had a father that had gone to the UW."

After some e-mailing with the fishermen, the UW got possession of the squid.

"I thought it would be really neat to have it for a classroom exercise," said Pietsch. However, most of the useful information about the squid was removed when the fishermen gutted it.

"We can't tell what gender it was or where it was in its reproductive cycle," said Pietsch.

UW scientists were able to discern that the squid was a little past mid-age, based on its size. Full-grown giant squid can be up to 20 feet in length, according to Pietsch.

Pietsch contacted some colleagues at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., but they do not have any storage facilities available for the squid. For now, it will sit in a freezer before its fate it decided.

"I'm waiting for a graduate student who works on these things to see what she wants to do with it," said Pietsch.

He suspects that the squid might end up on display or in a museum somewhere because of its rarity.