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".
List of giant squid specimens and sightings (21st century)
In 2001 Steve O'Shea succeeded in capturing the first footage of a live giant squid when he caught and filmed several paralarval individuals in captivity (#428; Baird, 2002; Young, 2002). This milestone was followed by the first images of a live "adult" giant squid (at the surface) on 15 January 2002, near Goshiki beach in Amino-cho, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan (#442). The animal, which measured about in mantle length and in total length, was found near the water's surface. It was captured and tied to a quay, where it died overnight ([Anonymous], 2002b; O'Shea, 2003f; Hellwarth, 2012). These images were joined by a number of little-publicised photographs of live adults at the surface off Okinawa (#449, 450, and 464). Renewed interest in filming a live giant squid followed the of an enormous specimen of bigfin squid (?Magnapinnidae) at great depth off Hawaii, which received global media attention (Morelli, 2002a), and the observation of a possible giant squid egg mass in early 2002 (#443; [Anonymous], 2002d). This included further efforts by O'Shea to capture live paralarval specimens (Morelli, 2002b; Grann, 2004) and another unsuccessful attempt to film a live adult in the wild, dubbed "Proyecto Kraken" ("Project Kraken"), made off the Spanish coast of Asturias in September 2002 and led by giant squid expert Ángel Guerra (Barreiro, 2002; Sitges, 2003; Soriano, 2003; Guerra, 2013). Amid growing competition between researchers, in September 2003 it was reported that O'Shea was leading a team that planned to image a live giant squid by suspending cameras in the water column that would release "puréed" female gonads to attract a male ([Anonymous], 2003c).