Preserved 30-foot squid is latest exhibit at aquarium

As calamari go, the new giant squid on display at the Georgia Aquarium would make one heck of an appetizer.

Bigger than a refrigerator and longer than a totem pole, the world’s largest fish tank unveiled the deep sea creature — the subject of centuries of monster tales — on Tuesday in its Cold Water Quest Gallery.

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VINO WONG / vwong@ajc.com

Bruce Carlson, the aquarium’s chief science officer, examines the squid’s tentacles.

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Its presence is a departure for the aquarium. The downtown attraction normally sticks to live fish that swim and float to amuse and amaze, not dead animals preserved in water and rubbing alcohol.

Bruce Carlson, the aquarium’s chief science officer, said the giant squid is special.

“This is something completely different for us,” he said. “This will make an impression on kids for years to come. It is so totally alien looking. This is a huge creature.”

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is lending the squid, which scientists think weighed 450 pounds and was nearly 30 feet long when it was alive, to the aquarium for about two years. It was discovered dead on a beach at the Massachusetts’ Plum Island National Wildlife Refuge in 1980.

The aquarium has encased it in a specially constructed nine-foot-long wood and fiber glass container.

Carlson said giant squids have fascinated because few have ever seen them in the great deep, their natural habitat, because it’s hard to reach. And when ships do dive that deep, it’s pitch black, making it impossible to see.

“We only get these remains when they die and wash up on shore,” he said.