Colossal Squid Finally Caught on Camera in the Deep Ocean

For implicit a century, the colossal squid has been 1 of the heavy sea’s astir slippery enigmas. Known mostly done bits and pieces recovered successful whale bellies and a fistful of dying adults spotted by fishers, this 23-foot-long (7-meter-long) fable has agelong evaded a due close-up. Until now.

On March 9, aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s probe vas Falkor (too), researchers caught their achromatic whale—er, squid. A juvenile colossal squid measuring astir a ft (30 centimeters) was filmed live adjacent the South Sandwich Islands successful the Atlantic Ocean. Researchers spotted the squid with the institute’s remotely operated conveyance SuBastian, which captured footage of the carnal successful its earthy situation astir 2,000 feet (609 meters) deep.

This is the archetypal confirmed footage ever of the squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), which is the heavyweight champ of the invertebrates, successful the wild. The squids tin measurement much than fractional a ton (453 kilograms), but contempt their size, are elusive and hard to observe. ROVs similar SuBastian are champion positioned to observe specified heavy oversea squids, whose utmost habitats marque it hard for humans to research otherwise.

The sighting was portion of an Ocean Census flagship expedition, a globe-spanning effort to catalog deep-sea biodiversity, and it conscionable truthful happens to coincide with the 100-year day of the colossal squid’s ceremonial identification. Better precocious than never!

But wait—there’s much squid. Just weeks earlier, connected January 25, the Falkor (too) unit captured the first-ever footage of the glacial solid squid (Galiteuthis glacialis) successful the Southern Ocean adjacent Antarctica. Known for its ghostly transparent assemblage and signature “cockatoo pose,” successful which the squid positions its arms supra its head, this elusive taxon had ne'er been filmed live either.

Two recently observed squid successful 3 months is simply a beauteous coagulated complaint of discovery—the colossal squid images unsocial would person been a large triumph for the Schmidt Ocean Institute team. Besides the squid, the Falkor (too) team spent past month investigating an past ecosystem revealed by the calving of an iceberg the size of Chicago.

Both squid discoveries were confirmed by experts Kat Bolstad and Aaron Evans, who reviewed the footage of the mollusks to certify their identities. Juvenile colossal squids look akin to the glacial solid squid, but the colossal squid’s arms person hooks successful their middle, helping separate it from its translucent cousin.

And portion some juveniles athletics see-through bodies and agelong tentacles, lone the colossal squid grows into a behemoth with eyes the size of basketballs susceptible of weighing up to 1,100 pounds—making it the heaviest invertebrate connected Earth.

“This is breathtaking and humbling,” said Bolstad. “They person nary thought humans adjacent exist.” Given however utmost the depths successful which they reside, it whitethorn beryllium a portion earlier colossal squids ever person to woody with a quality face-to-face.

The caller discoveries are conscionable SuBastian‘s latest forays into cephalopod science. The ROV antecedently logged the archetypal in-situ sightings of the Ram’s Horn Squid (Spirula spirula) successful 2020 and the Promachoteuthis successful 2024, arsenic good arsenic 1 yet-to-be-confirmed sighting.

The heavy sea’s denizens are arsenic elusive arsenic they are massive. But with a small submersible and a batch of luck, scientists are dilatory lighting up adjacent the sneakiest of squids.