A colossal squid 鈥 the largest invertebrate on the planet 鈥 has been filmed alive in its wild habitat for the first time.
For decades, the Kraken-like colossal squid () was more myth than reality: scientists had only a vague sense of its appearance from fragments of its remains found in the stomachs of the whales that eat the molluscs. In fact, it was through those remains that the species was officially described by zoologists in 1925.
Finally, in 1981, fishers in Antarctica accidentally reeled up a live colossal squid in their fishing nets. Since then, the animals have sometimes been killed as fishing bycatch, or have washed ashore dead.
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Last month, a vessel from the , a US-based non-profit organisation, was surveying the Southern Ocean near the South Sandwich Islands and live-streaming the footage from their remotely controlled deep-sea cameras, when an online viewer flagged that they might have just filmed a colossal squid.
Acting on the tip, the researchers sent the high-resolution footage to independent squid experts. The experts confirmed that the online viewer鈥檚 hunch was correct: the squid had distinctive hooks along the suckers on its eight arms, which are a hallmark of the colossal squid. It was roaming at 600 metres under the water鈥檚 surface.
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The first confirmed live observation of the colossal squid ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
While colossal squids are thought to grow up to 7 metres in length and 500 kilograms in weight, the squid caught on camera was a mere 30 centimetres in length: a baby.
鈥淚t’s amazing that every time we go down into the deep sea, we find something new and exciting,鈥 says of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
A colossal squid in its natural habitat in 2023 by researchers from another US-based organisation, 鈥 but the sighting couldn鈥檛 be confirmed because the footage was too low in quality. The new squid recording might suggest the 2023 footage really does capture a colossal squid. 鈥淚t’s the same size, same colour, similar depths, both in the Southern Ocean,鈥 says at Kolossal, who is still awaiting further confirmation.
However, there is as yet no footage of an adult colossal squid in the wild, and the lives of these gigantic invertebrates are still mysterious, says , formerly at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, who coined the name 鈥渃olossal squid鈥 in the early 2000s. He once touted the animals as 鈥渟eriously evil denizens of the deep鈥 but is now convinced they are more like 鈥済iant gelatinous ticks, simply blobbing around in the water column near the seabed鈥.
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