Researchers exploring the deep sea near Antarctica have made the first confirmed recordings of a colossal squid, the world’s heaviest invertebrate, in its natural environment. But the squid captured on camera was just 30 centimeters (12 inches) long — a baby.
The recording was made by the U.S.-based Schmidt Ocean Institute on March 9 during an expedition in the South Atlantic Ocean. It recorded the young squid at a depth of 600 meters (nearly 2,000 feet) with a remotely operated vehicle. Before this finding, everything scientists knew about colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) came from the bits of them that turned up in the bellies of other animals. In fact, the species was only scientifically described in 1925 from parts recovered from a sperm whale’s stomach.
“For 100 years, we have mainly encountered them as prey remains in whale and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish,” Kat Bolstad of the Auckland University of Technology, who consulted to correctly identify the squid, said in a statement.
Occasionally, adults, which can grow to 7 m (23 ft) and weigh 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds), have been collected by fishermen, but always dead or dying squid. The recent recording is the first look at a live, healthy squid.
The Schmidt Ocean Institute also recently captured the first known photos of the glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis) while exploring the Antarctic seafloor immediately after a massive glacier calved from the George VI ice shelf.
Image of a glacial glass squid, courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute
“The first sighting of two different squids on back-to-back expeditions is remarkable and shows how little we have seen of the magnificent inhabitants of the Southern Ocean,” Jyotika Virmani, Schmidt Ocean Institute’s executive director, said in the statement.
So little is known about the deep-sea cephalopods that it took several days and multiple independent scientists to correctly identify them.
The dive that filmed the baby colossal squid was livestreamed, so people witnessed the discovery in real time. That capability “pulls in experts from around the world, citizen scientists and enthusiasts who all participate,” Virmani said in a press conference.
In the same briefing, Bolstad stressed the importance of the deep sea, which is “95% of the available living space on our planet. It has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat we’ve put in the atmosphere in the last 100 years, and it’s out of sight and out of mind.”
But Bolstad said she’s optimistic that exciting discoveries like these and the ability to engage the public with livestream explorations will spark interest in one of the least-explored areas of the planet.
“People can come along with us as we make these discoveries. I feel like our ability to appreciate the deep sea on a much wider scale is moving towards where it should have been all along,” she said.
Banner image of a baby colossal squid, courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
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