The channel between Tenerife and La Gomera is one of the “hot spots” on the planet for the sighting of giant squid up to seven meters in length (including body, arms and tentacles), which points to the existence of a large colony of these spectacular cephalopods, which find in these seabeds the ideal habitat for their reproduction and feeding.
In the last 25 years, 47 specimens have been collected in the waters of the Archipelago, all of them dead and the majority floating on the surface. Many of them were females (which, together with the discovery of spermatophores in their bodies, supports the hypothesis that it is a reproduction area) and were incomplete due to the bites of other animals, as Catalina told DIARIO DE AVISOS. Perales-Raya, researcher at the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center.
The cephalopod expert explained that of the almost fifty animals registered, 43 were located between the south of Tenerife and the northwest of La Gomera, since in that area, between 500 and 1,500 meters deep, there are optimal conditions for their development, as it is a system of underwater canyons, where they find, in the highest areas, fish and other cephalopods for their food, although the deterioration of the stomach contents that they present when they are captured does not help to accurately specify their diet. Its main threats are sperm whales and pilot whales, which are abundant in that area and have become one of the great tourist attractions of southwestern Tenerife.
The average body size of this type of invertebrates captured in Canarian waters is 1.40 meters, to which we must add the eight arms (rejos) and, above all, the tentacles with which they catch their prey. In total, around seven meters. Its weight is around 100 kilos. The Architeuthis, which is how the giant squid is scientifically known, proliferates in temperate waters and can measure 18 meters (with a body length of 240 centimeters) and reach a weight of 275 kilos. It is considered the largest invertebrate on the planet and its eyes are the largest in the animal kingdom.
“This species is cosmopolitan, it is distributed throughout the world, but there are areas where more specimens are found and, in that sense, the Canary Islands is a hot spot on the planet,” said Perales-Raya, who stressed the “enormous” difficulty of finding a giant cephalopod alive, but also dead and intact.
Precisely, this researcher and the biologist Alejandro Escánez, from the University of La Laguna, a great expert in the subject, have carried out a complete “sampling” this year of a “maturing” female captured “just dead” in October 2022 in the channel between Tenerife and La Gomera and which remained in the freezing chambers of the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center until last May. “It was not one of the largest, it weighed about 70 kilos, the body had some bites, it measured just over 90 centimeters and with the bars it exceeded 2.6 meters, but the tentacles were missing.”
The specialist explained that the fact that specimens have appeared with the damaged back part is because it is “the most nutritious and softest, while in the front area the beak (jaw) is harder, as are the suction cups on the arms and cranial cartilage, which are more rigid structures and more difficult to eat.”
A technique used by the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center through the study of limestone structures and through the deposition rings points to a maximum life of three years in the largest rescued specimens, “with which their body would grow about two millimeters per day ”. The theory of the three years of life coincides with other studies carried out by scientists in Japan, a country also considered a hot spot for the sighting of these giant invertebrates.
Regarding their movements, Catalina Perales-Raya points out that there is no indication that they rise to the surface in life and highlighted the high concentrations of ammonium in their tissues, especially in the muscles, which helps them stay in shallower waters more easily. “They are animals that, due to their high weight, would always be at the bottom, since it would be very difficult for them to move to higher levels due to the pressure at those depths; “The high ammonium content, which is common in large specimens, allows them to move without consuming excessive energy.”
Likewise, the studies carried out by the research center located in the Fishing Dock of the capital of Tenerife and dependent on the Spanish Institute of Oceanography have made it possible to discover that the babies born in summer reach larger sizes, as they find more favorable environmental circumstances for their feeding in the first phases of life, as explained by Perales-Raya.
Obtaining an image of a live kraken in its habitat today remains an almost impossible mission, both in the Canary Islands and in the rest of the planet. Most captures occur due to sightings when their bodies float on the surface and accidentally by some fishing boat, but remains are also found stranded on the coasts and in the stomachs of their predators.
