12:00a.m. 14th May 2008

| By Amy Remeikis

Underwater World staff prepare the giant squid for its journey to the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. Photo: Chris McCormack/174694

Take a good look – because this will be the last time you see old squidy in one piece.

The giant squid which has been on display at UnderWater World for the past year and a half is off to its new home at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane.

There it will be thawed out, preserved in formalin, made into a resin model and then cut up into different bits – not for the world’s largest calamari platter, but for research.

Photo Gallery: Giant squid put on ice for transport

Enlarge photos | View thumbnails

Yesterday was a bittersweet day for UnderWater World’s curator of fish Clint Chapman.

The seven-metre squid was caught in fishing nets off the South Island of New Zealand and had spent much of its afterlife being gazed upon in awe by the thousands of tourists who passed through the exhibit.

But not a lot is known about these giants of the deep, so while staff at UnderWater World are sad to see the back of its tentacles, they are excited about what it may reveal to researchers.

“There is only now starting to be some research done on these amazing creatures, because they are fast-moving deep-sea animals, so we don’t see a lot of them,” Mr Chapman said.

“Hopefully we can begin to learn more about them.”

Two colossal squids and a pair of giant squids were defrosted for examination by scientists at Te Papa museum in New Zealand about two weeks ago, in an exercise captured on video.