Giant squid – also known also by their scientific name
Architeuthis – have been the stuff of both legend and science
for hundreds of years. Stories of great tentacled Kraken in
Scandinavia and in the scientific writings of Pliny the Elder
are some of the earliest indications that such monsters were
thought to exist. Giant squid have also left evidence of their
existence tangled up in fishing nets and washed ashore all over
the world. Despite their massive size (adults can grow up to
about 40 feet from tip to tentacle and weigh up to 610 pounds)
searching for them has been a needle-in-a-haystack endeavor. The
first video footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat will
air this Sunday on the Discovery Channel in Monster Squid: The
Giant is Real. The show is the culmination of years of
searching, and a successful six-week expedition 550 miles south
of Tokyo in June of 2012. "It’s not that they’ve been evading
us,” explains Craig McClain, Assistant Director of Science
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center a