The largest creature on Earth, a huge squid, was filmed alive in its natural habitat for the first time.
Scientists had only a rough idea of the Kraken-like enormous squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni)'s look from fragments recovered in whales' bellies. In 1925, zoologists described the species using those remains.
Finally, in 1981, Antarctic fishermen accidently caught a live enormous squid. Since then, animals have died as fishing bycatch or washed up dead.
The Schmidt Ocean Institute, a US non-profit, was surveying the Southern Ocean near the South Sandwich Islands and live-streaming footage from their remotely controlled deep-sea cameras last month when an online viewer suggested they had filmed a massive squid.
Following the tip, researchers provided high-resolution footage to independent squid experts. The specialists confirmed the internet viewer's suspicion: the giant squid had hooks along its eight suckers, a characteristic. It roamed 600 meters underwater.
Giant squids may grow up to 7 meters long and 500 kilos heavy, but the one recorded on camera was a baby at 30 centimeters.
“It's amazing that every time we go down into the deep sea, we find something new and exciting,” says Schmidt Ocean Institute's Jyotika Virmani.
Kolossal, another US non-profit, may have filmed a huge squid in its native habitat in 2023, but the footage was too low-quality to confirm. The 2023 footage may have captured a massive squid, according to the new recording.
“It's the same size, same colour, similar depths, both in the Southern Ocean,” adds Kolossal's Matt Mulrennan, who is awaiting confirmation.
Steve O'Shea, formerly of Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, who originated the moniker "colossal squid" in the early 2000s, claims there is no footage of an adult in the wild, and their lifestyles are still unknown.
His description of the animals has changed from “seriously evil denizens of the deep” to “giant gelatinous ticks, simply blobbing around in the water column near the sea bed.”