Common Name: Giant Squid

Record breaker: Largest recorded giant squid was 18 meters long (59.5 feet).  Its mantle was 5 meters (16.4 feet).  It weighed 1 metric ton.

The average size of the giant squid is 6 to 13 meters (19.7 to 42.7 feet) That is total length.  The mantle would be about 1 to 2.5 meters (3.2 to 8 feet).  The average weight is estimated to be 50 to 300 kg (110 to 661 pounds)

Squid in the genus Architeuthi are found in:  northern Atlantic , from Labrador to the Gulf of Mexico; northern Norway to the Azores; northern Pacific from the Bering Sea to the Sea of Japan: southern Japan, Hawaii and California.  It is also found in the Southern Ocean.

Giant squid are the largest cephalopod (octopus, cuttlefish, squid) and the largest mollusk.  Many people know that they are hunted by sperm whales.  This is fascinating to most of us, because the giant squid can be as long as the sperm whale that is hunting it.  Our imaginations can go wild imagining the fight between the two.  

Adults are found deep in the ocean, 200 to 1,000 meters (700 to 3,300 feet) (These are called the "epipelagic" and "mesopelagic" zones).  Also found at the bottom in the bathyal zone - which can be 4,000 meters (13,300 feet) deep.

FISHIN' FOR FACTSBACK TO THE SEABED

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