Colossal squid filmed for first time 2,000 feet under ocean's surface

A heavy dive to the Mariana Trench

A dive to the deepest parts of each 5 oceans 07:32

A colossal squid — the world's largest squid taxon — was filmed and photographed successful its earthy for the archetypal clip since scientists discovered it astir a period ago. Crew members connected committee a probe vas successful the South Atlantic Ocean recorded the video March 9, said the nonprofit enactment Schmidt Ocean Institute, which owns the ship.

The crew's remotely operated conveyance technically facilitated the sighting, which occurred astir 2,000 feet beneath the aboveground of waters astir the South Sandwich Islands, a volcanic archipelago located betwixt the extremity of South America and Antarctica. The unprecedented footage of the elusive deep-sea carnal came 100 years aft it was initially identified and fixed a name, according to the institute.

As their moniker suggests, colossal squid tin turn to beryllium enormous, with immoderate yet weighing arsenic overmuch arsenic 1,100 pounds and measuring up to 43 feet, according to the conservation radical Oceana. That's the tallness of a multi-story building. The squid caught connected video successful the South Atlantic was a juvenile and overmuch smaller than a full-grown adult, with the probe squad placing its size astatine astir 11 feet long.

Researchers successful March captured the archetypal footage of a colossal squid successful its earthy habitat, thousands of feet nether the oversea disconnected the South Sandwich Islands. Schmidt Ocean Institute

"It's breathtaking to spot the archetypal successful situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to deliberation that they person nary thought that humans exist," said Kat Bolstad, a prof and researcher astatine the Auckland University of Technology successful New Zealand, who the unit consulted to verify their squid footage aft the expedition. "For 100 years, we person chiefly encountered them arsenic prey remains successful whale and seabird stomachs and arsenic predators of harvested toothfish."

The expedition occurred during a 35-day voyage wherever researchers sought to find caller marine life, according to the Schmidt Ocean Institute. 

Colossal squid beryllium to the "glass squid" family, a radical of astir 60 squid taxon that earned that statement due to the fact that of their transparent bodies. Scientists said that portion colossal squid person this quality arsenic juveniles, their bodies go much opaque implicit time. Although not overmuch is known astir the beingness rhythm of the monolithic squid, this alteration has been documented by fishermen who person encountered colossal squid arsenic they die.

The Schmidt Ocean Institute's probe trips person truthful acold led to the archetypal sightings of 4 taxon of squid, including the latest colossal squid sighting, the enactment said. The institute's enforcement manager Jyotika Virmani described the encounters arsenic "unforgettable moments," which "continue to punctual america that the Ocean is brimming with mysteries yet to beryllium solved."

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