We are trying to defrost the specimen – it’s proving to be a colossal headache as the central core is still a solid block of ice. (Not enough experience with cooking those Christmas turkeys among the scientists!). We are expecting some media cameras to arrive shortly, so for those of you watching online (all 2,000+) the room may get crowded for a while.
We’ve added in a close up on SquidCam of Mark and the guys unfurling the tentacles. They’re using bubble wrap and floating bags to stop the tentacles from breaking off as the partially thawed tissue is quite fragile.
Once the specimen is fully thawed we will be able to preserve it using formalin. This is a chemical process which will cause the molecular structure to form cross-bonds and toughen the tissue up, just as squid goes tough when cooked – except we will use formalin instead of heat.
Wednesday morning we will be here from around 9 am when the final unfolding of the large colossal squid will take place. At present it is still frozen inside the centre of the cube and folded into several layers…….
To give you some idea of the size, the smaller specimen on the dissection table weighs 161 kg (but is probably lacking about 50 kg of tissue from the mantle) and is 4.6 metres in total length . . . the large specimen in the tank weighs 495 kg and we will not know the total length until it is fully thawed and straightened out.
See you back here tomorrow – dreaming of the Kraken . . . .
Mark Fenwick and Kat Bolstad are in the tank carefully cutting the landing net away from the thawing squid. Fortunately the squid is still partially frozen and is floating, which makes the task much easier.
The beak of the colossal squid has been exposed as the flesh thaws. Preliminary measurement of the lower beak rostral length on the smaller specimen is 42 mm; the lower beak rostral length on the larger specimen is about 43-45 mm.
We know that the beaks of this species attain lower beak rostral lengths of 49 mm . . . . therefore, this animal likely gets much, much bigger - really, really big in fact!
The ‘smaller’ specimen is approximately half the size of the larger specimen in terms of weight, but the beak is only 3-4 mm smaller than the large specimen. The largest beaks known are at least 5 mm bigger than the larger specimen. . . . can we assume that this species reaches three quarters of a tonne in weight???
The colossal squid specimen has been slowly thawing overnight. Shortly we will assess how far it has progressed and add another tonne of ice, as the temperature of the water has been creeping up and is above 8 degrees centigrade. We had hoped for a good Wellington southerly with air temperatures around 10-12 degrees, but it’s been rather mild reaching 20 yesterday.
Although the outer edges of the squidcicle are thawed, the central core will still be frozen. The specimen was folded up like an accordian in order to fit it into its container – we cannot begin the delicate task of unfolding the specimen until it is completely thawed, or there is a great risk of breaking it into pieces (like the smaller specimen that we will be examining today).
During the examination of the 200 kg giant squid specimen last evening Dr Kubodera managed to locate the tiny statoliths inside the brain – these are 1-2 mm long and will be used to determine the age of the specimen by counting the growth rings. Statoliths are calcified structures which the squid uses to orientate itself in the water column.
Inspecting the beak. The beak is 200 mm long and capable of slicing fish into pieces small enough to pass down the oesophagus through the brain.
The tentacles of the giant squid were preserved separately in formalin – 
they were already separated from the specimen. Giant squid tentacles are usually lost in specimens caught in trawls, so we are pleased with these.
At present we have the large giant squid that we took out of the freezer yesterday afternoon almost completely defrosted on the examination bench. We will be examining this specimen during the afternoon.
The first part of the examination is using the endoscope to check for stomach contents:
Exposing the beak at the center of the branchial crown:
Just before lunch we added a metric tonne of ice to the thawing tank to bring the temperature down before we put the large colossal specimen into the water at 3 pm today.
The smaller colossal specimen is thawing in the bench sink, but probably will not be thawed enough until tomorrow morning.
Occasionally there may be times when nothing much appears to be happening – we do have to feed the scientists – some who shall remain nameless have been eyeing the fresh squid and heard to be muttering about sushi . . . .
This morning we took the smaller (200 kg) colossal squid out of the freezer. This specimen is reportedly in bad condition, so we will use it to study the anatomy in detail, and leave the larger specimen intact for display. Initial examination of the suckers of this specimen reveals some morphological details that we can’t account for – more thawing needed and we’ll update on what this means!
Because the specimen was in the back of the freezer we had to move the large colossal squid out briefly, then take out the smaller specimen. As soon as we put the large specimen back in the freezer, a refrigerated truck arrived with another 200+ kg giant squid – requiring more shuffling to get that one into the freezer!
We’re going to see what we can do about the audio on the webcast. If we can get any in, it won’t be more than an ambient microphone. We’ll keep you posted with our progress.
As well as the large colossal squid being defrosted and examined, the scientists will also be examining two giant squid and an incomplete small colossal squid.
You can watch one of the giant squid being being unwrapped for defrosting now via the webcast. The image below shows a common arrow squid alongside the mantle of the giant squid.
The good thing about having a plan is that it can be changed! This morning we removed the colossal squid from the freezer and took it out of its plastic container bin. We discovered that the specimen filled the entire bin, and therefore there is very little ice surrounding it. Consequently the specimen would thaw well before Wednesday when all the scientists will be here, so we have placed it back in the freezer and will remove it tomorrow, allowing 48 hours for the thaw.
We added 300 kg of salt to the tank to bring the salinity level to about that of seawater.
This morning we have been assessing how to thaw the squid specimens in order, so that the scientists can examine them during the week. Later today we will remove a 200kg giant squid from the freezer and thaw it for examination Tuesday morning. Tomorrow afternoon we have a small, damaged colossal squid specimen which will thaw overnight for examination on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile we have a few bags of party ice happily enjoying the tank!
Sunday 3pm : giant squid removal from freezer
Monday morning: small colossal squid removal from freezer. Monday afternoon at 3pm: large colossal squid removal from freezer.
Tuesday morning: examination of giant squid specimen. Afternoon: examination of small colossal specimen.
Wednesday 10 am – 2 pm: examination of large colossal specimen; 2 pm fixation of specimens in formalin
Since the media release last Tuesday we’ve had about 6000 visits to the Te Papa squid pages! For this time period the squid ranks 5th on our website and rising! www.tepapa.govt.nz/squid
Today final preparations are in full swing with the webcam installation, and cameras being set up by Natural History NZ who are filming the dissection for a Discovery Channel documentary which will screen later this year. Converting a dissection laboratory into a film studio requires a few makeshift changes to control the lighting and sound!
The webcam will screen from Sunday morning NZ time (and we’ll leave the lights on so people can watch ice melt overnight!). Unfortunately we will not be able to webcast the lectures live on 1st & 2nd May, but these will be available as podcasts later.
We will endeavour to update events throughout the dissection as information becomes available.
What others are saying
There’s a lot of information about colossal squid available on the internet in addition to the Te Papa webpages – for example The Octopus News Magazine Online: http://tonmo.com
Especially the forums. For instance on this thread, Dr Steve O’Shea will answer questions about the colossal squid: http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13084&page=4
Some Squid-fans are even going to live-blog about the dissection: http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2008/04/giant_squid_live_and_in_techni.php
Google blog search
Here’s a link to a blog search for Colossal Squid – it will give you an idea about some others who are blogging about our squid.
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=colossal+squid&btnG=Search+Blogs
Tomorrow is ANZAC Day holiday in New Zealand, so we’ll be back on Sunday morning when the squid will be removed from the freezer to start thawing. While we watch ice melt we have some other giant squid in the freezer to examine – yesterday we received news of the capture of another 200+kg giant squid that will be delivered here on Monday! The signs are good – here’s a cloud which appeared over the building yesterday:
The completed tank frame is lined with heavy duty plastic that will hold the fluid and specimen during the preservation process. The first task is to fill the tank with water (with about 10,000 litres to fill, it will take several hours) then we will dissolve 300 kg of salt in the tank.
The salt will decrease the freezing point of the water, enabling us to melt the ice while keeping the specimen at around zero degrees centigrade so it will not deteriorate. The scientists will be outfitted with gumboots and waders so they can climb into the tank to examine the specimen!
