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An image from the first confirmed live observation of the colossal squid live in its natural … More habitat.
ROV Subastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
Big news about the colossal squid: Scientists have captured what they say is the first-ever confirmed footage of the elusive creature alive in its natural environment deep below the ocean’s surface.
The colossal squid, or Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is a member of the glass squid family known for its staggering size. It can grow to be between 23 and 46 feet long and weigh as much as 1,100 pounds, making it the heaviest invertebrate on the planet and proving that its name is no exaggeration.
Scientists and crew aboard a Schmidt Ocean Institute research vessel captured the footage during an expedition in the South Atlantic Ocean expedition near the South Sandwich Islands about 430 miles southeast of South Georgia. The film’s star is a baby who measures nearly a foot long.
The world’s first intact adult male colossal squid gets hauled aboard a New Zealand fishing boat in … More 2007 in the Ross Sea near Antarctica.
Getty Images
“It’s exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist,” Kat Bolstad, an ecology professor at the Auckland University of Technology and one of the independent scientific experts who verified the footage, said in a statement. “For 100 years, we have mainly encountered them as prey remains in whale and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish.” Sperm whales are their main predator.
The Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remote operated vehicle “Subastian” spotted the deep-sea on March 9 as it descended to the sea floor in search of new marine life, and the institute shared the footage on Tuesday. For the during a 35-day Ocean Census expedition, the Schmidt Ocean Institute collaborated with the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, and GoSouth, a joint project between the U.K.’s University of Plymouth, the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany and the British Antarctic Survey.
Colossal squid have hooks on the middle of their eight arms and two longer tentacles. In the footage, the hooks are clearly visible on the end of those tentacles as the transparent baby floats in the dark water like something out of a dream.
‘The Hunt Continues’
The images mark an exciting step forward in understanding the colossal squid, said Matt Mulrennnan, a marine scientist and founder and CEO of Kolossal, an ocean exploration nonprofit unconnected to the newly released footage. “The more colossal-sized adults are still out there in the deep waters off Antarctica and will be even more challenging to film, so the hunt continues,” he said in an email interview.
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During expeditions in Antarctica between 2022 and 2023, Kolossal captured its own glass squid footage, which is still being analyzed to determine whether it represents the first juvenile colossal squid sighting. Kolossal researchers are currently studying the new squid footage in an attempt to confirm whether the 2023 finding was a juvenile colossal squid, or one of two other species of glass squid in Antarctica.
“There are many similarities in color, shape, size and depths, and so far nothing has been ruled out by the experts,” Mulrennnan said.
The colossal squid has been known to science since 1925, when researchers described the first specimen based on two tentacles found inside a whale’s stomach. This year, therefore, marks 100 years since the identification and formal naming of the colossal squid. The footage is quite an anniversary present.
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