Massive & Mysterious Giant Squid egg-sac found at Norwegian shores for the first time

This morning (11. July), a news-video from Norway’s largest newspaper, VG, caught a lot of attention with the headline that a Norwegian diver “could have made an amazing discovery” along the Norwegian shores. His video shows a 1.5 meter wide, and 1.5 tonne heavy, blob-looking bubble only 6 meters from the Norwegian shore. The discovery has puzzled marine biologists at the Norwegian University for Science and Technology (world leading in research on octopuses and squids), who believe the object to be the egg capsule of a Giant Squid (also named Architeuthis) that can grow up to 13 meters wide!

What marine biologists believe to be an Egg capsule of Giant Squid

Although Giant Squids are known to exist close to the Arctic, they have never been seen in Norway. As they normally live at around 1000 meters deep, few have ever been seen except by deep-sea exploration ROVs. Even less have actually seen an egg capsule like these, as eggs are normally laid at the deep. And with even less footage being caught on camera and properly reported, the researchers are careful to state exactly what it is, adding to the mystery. While this egg capsule had a diameter of about 1.5 meters, and weighing 1.5 tonnes, they can grow to the size of a truck. In this case, the eggs have already left the capsule, which have been protecting them before hatching.

The Giant Squid, or the Architeuthis Squid, is the second largest squid known to man (second only to the “Colossal Squid”) and are truly massive. Their size may reach up to 13 meters (43 ft) when measured from tentacle to tentacle. Below, you can see a model that is shown in the Natural Science Museum in Madrid.

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain
source

If this really is the egg capsule of a Giant Squid, then this is a very rare sight indeed. Most likely, the eggs will have hatched at a much deeper sea level, where the empty capsule have simply been allowed to float to the surface. However, one can never know exactly where the eggs could have hatched. So should you live close to the area, and have my sense of humour, you will make sure to inform the kids that a Giant Squid’s eggs may have just hatchet nearby where they are going to swim, and that Mummy is surely looking for food! ;)

There is still much to be learned about life at the bottom of our oceans, as to date we have explored less than 5 percent of the world’s oceans, meaning that we literally know more about the surface of the Moon than the floor of our oceans. As a result, we really do not know just how large animals like these can actually get, or if there are other species of squids closely related that can get even bigger. Many new exciting, and perhaps a bit terrifying, discoveries are sure to lie ahead as deep sea exploration becomes increasingly relevant!

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