Half-tonne squid's six-hour shift

Last updated 12:28 06/08/2008

JEFF McEWAN/The Dominion Post

UNDERSEA CREATURE: Te Papa's 495kg colossal squid is being shifted today from its preservation tank into a display case.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

RESTING PLACE: The team moves the squid into the cradle.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU: The squid's eye.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

NEW HOME: The team loading the squid into the tank.

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Its three-month bath is over, and Te Papa's colossal squid is on the move - and receiving some makeshift cosmetic surgery.

Scientists and technicians were today moving the giant underwater creature - discovered off Antarctica last year - from its preservation tank and into a purpose-built case so it could go on public display late this year.

The shift was scheduled to take about six hours. The squid weighs around 495kg.

The moving process involved draining 6000 litres of toxic solution from the tank, rinsing the squid, turning it over so scientists could remove eggs from a rip in the mantle, repairing the rip, then hoisting it into the display with a preserving fluid.

Scientists were also restoring the now-deflated squid to her former glory by inserting implants - in the form of specially-shaped bags inflated with water - into the mantle.

By 3pm, the squid had been hoisted into a cradle, then lifted and placed into the new display case.

"It was tense there for a while but it went swimmingly!" wrote a staff member on the Te Papa blog.

"Our beautiful big squid is safely in her fancy tank and she looks great."

Te Papa technician Mark Fenwick described what the squid felt like to touch after three months submerged in solution.

"To my touch the arms are now firm and don't 'give' in the way they did when we first defrosted her," he wrote on Te Papa's squid blog.

"The mantle however still has a covering of the jelly like substance that would have been under the maroon coloured skin. The tail or fin is now firm as well, so when Steve and I were turning her over there wasn't the awful feeling that we had last time that the fin might disintegrate under our touch."

Te Papa conservator Robert Clendon said once the squid was in its new case they would pump in a storage solution comprised of monopropyline glycol, water and a biocide.

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The biocide would stop bacteria, moulds or fungi from growing inside the tank.

Samples would be taken once a week to check the pH range and biological activity within the tank.

- © Fairfax NZ News