Giant squid of the Newfoundland Banks. From a painting by Herbert B. Judy from Sea-shore life.

Sea-shore life

Giant squid of the Newfoundland Banks. From a painting by Herbert B. Judy.

This is not a time to go swimming off the boat! This Giant squid will not harm you, but you could get lost in its eight arms and two feeding tentacles which are very, very long. The Giant squid is most definitely a giant. Their eyes are the size of dinner plates. At close to 43 feet long, the largest known giant squid was roughly the length of a four-story building! Giant squids grow quickly and die early. Studies suggest that they don’t live more than five years. So, to grow as big as they do as quickly as they do, they have to live where food is plentiful, such as continental and island slopes. During their short lives, the Giant squid usually reproduces one time. Females release a clump of eggs in a jellied mass. Most eggs are eaten by other marine animals, but the ones that make it become one of the oceans’ largest predators, feasting on deep water fish and other squids, including other Giant squids!