Divers Find Enormous, Creepy Squid on New Zealand Beach

By Kimberly Hickok, Reference Editor | August 27, 2018 04:33pm ET

Divers visiting New Zealand's south coast of Wellington were looking for a nice spot to go spearfishing Saturday morning (Aug. 25) when they spotted one of the ocean's most impressive creatures of the deep: a dead, but fully intact, giant squid.

"After we went for a dive we went back to [the squid] and got a tape measure out, and it measured 4.2 meters [13 feet] long," one of the divers, Daniel Aplin, told the New Zealand Herald.

A representative from the New Zealand Department of Conservation told the Herald that the divers most likely found a giant squid (Architeuthis dux) and not a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). [Photos of the Stunning Deep-Sea Squid Feeding]

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Both species of squid are formidable sea creatures, with giant squid typically reaching 16 feet (5 m) long, according to the Smithsonian, and the colossal squid reaching over 30 feet (10 m) long, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Scientists know very little about these deep-sea-dwelling species, because the animals are so rarely seen. Most observations come from the occasional specimen washing ashore, as in this case, or getting accidently captured by fishers.

Continued  

Kakariki fledge in Wellington for the first time in a century

Kakariki at Zealandia

December 2010. Conservationists at Wellington's world-renowned wildlife sanctuary, Zealandia, are celebrating the first successful fledging of a wild red-crowned parakeet (kakariki) chick in the city in at least 100 years.

The first flight was captured on a remote camera. The chick can be seen being coaxed out of the nest hole by the dad, before bravely taking the plunge as his younger siblings watch on.

The two-month old chick is one of three kakariki to hatch in the nest (a natural hole in an old tree fuchsia). It is almost certainly the first kakariki chick to fledge in the wild in Wellington City for 100 years. Fifty-five kakariki were transferred to Zealandia from Kapiti Island in an attempt to re-establish a wild population in Wellington City. Small populations exist in Porirua and on Matiu/Somes Island but this is the first in the City in 100 years.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wellington-kakariki.html