Details of Archie
Hi Phil
I found the story when trawling the papers for Giant Squid News, It was in the May 26th 2005 issue of the Guardian,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,,1491812,00.html
In the actual article it had a close up of the suckers. According to the paper it was caught in 2004 by a trawler off the Falkland Islands.
What's interesting is that according to the paper...
"Fortunately for the scientists at the museum, the squid is one of the most perfect specimens that has ever been found - it looks as though it was healthy when it died and is pretty much complete".
I don't know how true that is, the photo accompanying the article had only a close up so I couldn't judge. For people who are members of the Natural History Museum (it costs about GBP 42.00 to be a member for a year) there are two talks and viewings on the 14th October. These haven't been advertised to members yet. But I put 'Giant Squid' into the search engine on the Museum site as I've been regularly checking for updates, and the other day this popped up.
"A Giant's Tale: Up from the Deep
Discover the story of 'Archie'. How did he come to be at the Museum and what has happened to him since?. ... Centre tour guide Stephen Roberts and Invertebrates Curator Jon Ablett present the Museum's newest and largest specimen at 8.62 metres long - the giant squid. Discover 'Archie's' story including how he came to be at the Museum and how we are preserving and preparing him for display".
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/events/detail.jsp?key=2706
The link above appears below the entry, but doesn't work at the time of typing, according to the members office they are still constructing the page, but they are taking bookings for the tour. I'm really looking forward to it.