Taningia danae, seen attacking a research camera. Photo: UWA/Inkfish // YouTube
Scientists recently managed to capture extremely rare footage of a bioluminescent deep-sea squid when it attacked a research camera. The video was taken at a depth of over one kilometer under the ocean and provided a glimpse at an alien creature that is notoriously difficult to observe in the wild.
The video was captured by a team from the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre, whose mission is to explore and document the biodiversity of the seafloor at depths between three and eight kilometers. They were deploying free-fall baited cameras to a depth of over five kilometers, near an area of the South Pacific called the Samoan Passage, when they came across the incredible clip.
“As we were reviewing the footage, we realized we had captured something very rare,” said Heather Stewart, a senior researcher affiliated with the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre and director of Kelpie Geosciences UK.
What they saw was a deep-sea hooked squid called the Dana Octopus Squid, or Taningia danae. The creature is one of the largest deep-water squid and its most notable feature is a pair of fist-sized light emitting organs called photophores on the end of two of its arms. The Taningia danae’s photophores are some of the largest known to science, and are covered in black, eyelid-like membranes that the squid can use to blink the lights and disorient prey – which is exactly what the creature tried to do as the camera passed by.
“The squid, which was about 75cm long, descended on our camera assuming it was prey, and tried to startle it with is huge bioluminescent headlights,” continued Stewart. “It then proceeded to wrap its arms around one of other cameras which in turn captured the encounter in even greater detail. I think we were very lucky to have witnessed this.”
