The longest fish-the star-backed whale shark-gets to 18.8 metres. The largest mammal, the blue whale, grows up to 33 metres long, and can swallow half a million calories in one mouthful. Seven treacherous metres exist between the tip of a great white shark’s toothy snout and the end of its powerful tail. In the depths, 3-metre-long giant tube worms thrive near hot, belching, volcanically heated vents, and giant isopods-a kind of undersea woodlouse on steroids-can reach 50 centimetres. There are 2-metre-wide Nomura’s jellyfish that can weigh 200 kilograms. There are giant barrel sponges, whose bodies are just two layers of cells sandwiching a jelly filling, but can nonetheless grow to 2.5 metres wide. Hype and decline aside, the stats from the paper still tell of oceans that are full of impressive leviathans. “It could be pollution or climate change.” “The two octopus experts who were with me on this paper say that they just don’t get that big any more,” says McClain. In 1885, fishermen in the Aleutian Islands caught a Giant Pacific octopus that was 9.8 metres from one arm tip to the next. For others, like the lion’s mane jellyfish and Japanese spider crab, the team found that accurate data just doesn’t exist.Īnd “some animals may just not be getting as big as they used to get,” says McClain. The biggest known walrus weighed 1,883 kilograms, a far cry from the 2,500 kilogram titan that a hunter supposedly shot, and clearly embellished.įor some species, estimates were outdated-giant clam sizes all date to the 60s and 70s. The largest verifiable giant squid was 12 metres long-giant, sure, but a damn sight smaller than 18 metres. And together, they found the best possible estimates for the maximum sizes of 25 ocean giants.įor some species, widely quoted figures were outrageously wrong. They reeled in eBay records to find the measurements of giant clams and snail shells. ![]() They contacted networks that rescue stranded turtles. They asked colleagues at museums to measure specimens in their collections. They combed through books, newsletters, and newspapers. They trawled the scientific literature for measurements. They recruited five keen undergraduate students and large team of colleagues, who divided a list of target species between them. McClain, together with Meghan Balk from the University of New Mexico, went after better sources. One size estimate even came from someone counting his paces next to a beached squid! Shoddy data had been unleashed upon the kraken. Many individuals are measured when they wash ashore, after decomposition loosens their muscles and eager humans stretch their tentacles. The vast majority are less than half that length. Umpteen media report claim that this nigh-mythic animal can grow up to 60 feet (18 metres) in length. And so, oceans are also home to exaggeration. Some are so big that they are just plain hard to measure. Some are only measured when they wash ashore, after dry land distends or deflates their bodies. ![]() Many are rare, elusive, or live in inaccessible parts of the sea. ![]() These creatures have no trouble capturing the public imagination, but scientists often have trouble capturing them. The oceans are home to giants: blue whales and great white sharks giant squids and giant clams elephant seals and Japanese spider crabs. Rather than an angry blog post, McClain decided to put together a scientific paper that would accurately answer a simple yet slippery question: How big do the biggest animals in the ocean get? And you said: You should write it, but you just need to find the right tone. “I made a comment about how I always wanted to write a post on how giant squid sizes are bullsh*t,” he recalls,” but that those always come off as an arrogant scientist telling the world that it’s wrong. It apparently left an impression on Craig McClain, a marine biologist and blogger who was in the audience. A few years ago, Carl Zimmer and I ran a workshop on science writing, where we talked, among other things, about explaining science without talking down to your audience.
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