"It was obvious that it was dead, but it was also very fresh," Salvay said. "We had caught squid before, but they were 50-pounders, and this was different because its arms and tentacles were, like, 15 feet long, so we figured it had to be from a giant squid."
Scientists speculate that the squid was killed by either a sperm whale -- the natural enemy of giant squid -- or killer whales. Killer whales had been seen recently in the vicinity.
Eric Hochberg, a curator at the Santa Barbara museum, said this became only the fourth such specimen discovered in Southland waters.
Parts of a tentacle were caught in a sablefish trap at 3,000 feet near Cortes Bank offshore from San Diego in 1979; a tentacle piece was pulled from a trawl net at 1,800 feet north of that in 1989; and floating remnants were discovered off Dana Point in 2000.
Giant squid are not to be confused with jumbo, or Humboldt squid, which measure up to seven feet and have become fairly common visitors.
The giant squid that inhabit the North Pacific are believed to belong to the species \o7Architeuthis japonica, \f7which grow to 30 feet\o7. \f7No live specimen has ever been studied, though researchers near Japan last year photographed a 25-foot giant squid as it drifted in the blackness at 2,950 feet.
It is not known whether they're aggressive or docile -- Humboldt squid can be extremely aggressive, even cannibalistic -- or even what their primary diet may be. Sperm whales have been spotted with scarring, possibly caused by a giant squid's toothy tentacles.
"We're just glad to have it," Hochberg said. "What this one does for us is confirm, more than anything else, that giant squid really are here in this area."
Whether we like it or not.
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Fish story
With its surreal, elongated body, misshapen head and red body-length dorsal fin, it's easy to see why the rarely seen oarfish is the object of sea-serpent tales.
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Oarfish facts
Other name: Ribbon fish
Scientific name: Regalecus glesne
Weight: 100 pounds or more
Depth range: Down to 3,000 feet
Habitat: All temperate or tropical oceans
Diet: Zooplankton, crustaceans
Predators: Oceanic white-tipped shark
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Sources: Wikipedia, seasky.org, tiscali.co.uk, Graphics reporting by Joel Greenberg
