Giant squid - level 3
Imagine coming face to face with this!
It's a colossal squid, hauled from the Ross Sea in New Zealand last December.
Now, though, scientists at a museum in Wellington have defrosted and examined it. Skipper, John Bennett, caught the female squid.
“The squid came up on the line, we could see it down the dips as it was coming up and all of a sudden alongside we had this beautiful perfect sample of a colossal squid.”
Kat Bolstad from Auckland's University of Technology discovered that the squid is a female, weighing around 771 pounds (350 kg), has eyes that are 13 inches (33 cm) across and arms measuring over one meter long with large suckers.
Mr Bennett caught his first colossal squid seven years ago. It weighed 1102 pounds (500 kg) and is also on display in the same museum, though it's yet to be decided if this squid will be on public display.
Difficult words: colossal (very big), haul (pull), skipper (captain of a ship), dip (in the water), sample (example), public display (for people to see).