Giant Squid Filmed in Natural Habitat for the First Time
When I first saw the headline I thought it was a repost from the first time scientists captured footage of a giant squid, but as it turns out this is entirely new. Scientists in a submersible vehicle captured footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat, apparently between 600-900 meters underwater, for the very first time.
The only video I could find is the one below of someone filming the footage shown on Japanese television. Hopefully a better copy of the video will be released soon.
They spotted the squid at a depth of 630 meters using a submersible in July, some 15 km east of Chichi Island, part of the Ogasawara chain. The submarine with three people on board, including Tsunemi Kubodera from the museum, followed the enormous mollusk to a depth of 900 meters as it swam into the abyss.
The creature was about 3 meters long, but was “estimated to be as long as 8 meters if its two long arms had not been chopped off,” Kubodera said. He gave no explanation for its missing tentacles.
He said it was the first video footage of a live giant squid in its natural habitat — the depths where there is little oxygen.
Kobudera, a squid specialist, also filmed what he says was the first live video footage of a giant squid in 2006, but only from his boat after the creature was hooked and brought up to the surface.
The giant squid, known as Architeuthis to scientists, is sometimes described as one of the last mysteries of the ocean, being part of a world so hostile to humans that it has been little explored.
via Japan Times
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