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If you thought the 25 foot crochet squid was fearsome, what do you think about Malcolm and Dorothy Clarke’s incredible museum?

Here is what the museum is all about:

The idea came to Malcolm after retirement from a career in research and a further 14 years in unpaid research on squids, cetaceans and other squid predators such as seals, sea birds and fish. All together Malcolm has spent 50 years doing research on oceanic animals and has enjoyed the friendship of many biologists who have been at the forefront of research in biological oceanography and physiology over more than half a centuary. Many exciting discoveries have been made in this period but much more remains to be discovered. Here we touch on the unknown and describe some of the controversial theories which still await proof.

In an enjoyable environment on cliffs overlooking the deep sea we hope to provide an insight into the complexity of the environment and show how three different animals have evolved to cope with it. We hope that this glimpse of species diversity will encourage people to protect the species they have inherited whatever their looks and life styles. Even the poorest known squids are essential to the whales and have their own complex ways to cope with the deep sea, ways that we are only beginning to understand and, in some cases, use ourselves.

And here is what interests us most at squidblog.net:

The main food of this great whale is types of squid, very few of which have ever been seen by very few people. Sperm whales eat more than man catches of all marine species, probably more than twice as much, over 200 million tonnes each year! So are these little known jet propelled invertebrates of interest in their own right? We aim to show that they are, in the only museum in the World dealing in detail with this fascinating class of animals. Here you will learn of their extraordinary senses, divided brains, concord propulsion, jetsetting life cycles, light production, food catching mechanisms, cryptic trickery, and buoyancy mechanisms. And their size will not be neglected! Life sized models will show actual sizes of those eaten by sperm whales, right up to the 60 feet Architeuthis, the daddy of them all!

It sounds too good to be true, but it really does exist. Tonmo member Euprymna has been there personally, and has posted a number of photos. Check out the awesome life-size models of giant squid.

[**With immense thanks to Euprymna for enlightening us all of this museum’s existence]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Squid Miscellania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.