Colossal squid
The largest recorded specimen was captured in 2007 by a New Zealand fishing boat off Antarctica. It was initially estimated to measure in length and weigh . The squid was taken back to New Zealand for scientific study. A study on the specimen later showed its actual weight was , but it only measured in total length as a result of the tentacles' shrinking "post mortem".
Cephalopod size
Perhaps the most notable misidentification relates to a photograph taken some time before 1993 by diver H. Kubota off southern Japan (Ellis, 1998a:211; Norman, 2000:174). The image shows a large individual of "Onykia robusta" (previously known as "Moroteuthis robusta"), which appears to be sick or dying, alongside a diver in shallow water (Ellis, 1998a:211). A video of the same animal appeared in a Japanese made-for-television film (Ellis, 1998a:211). The image was published in the 1993 book "European Seashells" by Guido T. Poppe and Yoshihiro Goto, where it was identified as "Architeuthis dux", the giant squid, and said to have been taken in the North Atlantic (Poppe & Goto, 1993). If true, this image would represent the first known photograph of a live giant squid. In "The Search for the Giant Squid" (1998), Richard Ellis wrote: