This might be the very first footage of a baby colossal squid ever. Photo: Kolossal/Mulrennan/YouTube
There are more than a few unsolved mysteries of the deep sea, and the colossal squid is one of the most intriguing. To date, there are zero — count ’em, zero — images or moving footage of them in their natural habitat. The tiny bit we do know about them has been gleaned from the very few specimens that have washed ashore or been found in fishing nets. They’re thought to be the basis of a million seafarers’ tales, but a new discovery might just shed a little bit more light on them.
A little tidbit of an interesting fact for you: next year, 2025, will mark the 100 year anniversary of the discovery of the colossal squid. An International research team intends on finding and studying the elusive creature in its natural habitat by then, and they’ve been touring the Southern Ocean off Antarctica aboard a vessel called the Ocean Endeavor. While it’s generally used as a tourism boat, the team hung a deep sea camera off of it that can be dropped over 1,000 feet down.
The colossal squid is, as the name implies, very big. While the upper end of just how big they can get isn’t confirmed, it’s thought that they can grow to over 46 feet and weigh up to 1,000 pounds. It’s the biggest invertebrate on Earth.
“The colossal squid is an oversized poster species for how little we know about the ocean,” said Matt Mulrennan, Marine Scientist, the leader of the four 2022-2023 expeditions and Founder/CEO of non-profit Kolossal, in a statement sent to IFLScience.
Although the team didn’t film an adult as they hoped, they did manage to get footage of what’s though to be either an unknown species or — hopefully — the very first footage of a a small juvenile colossal squid ever recorded. It can be seen at the 2:30 mark in the video below.
“The two known Cranchiidae taxa seen in the Antarctic are Galiteuthis glacialis and Mesonychoteuthis hamiltonim,” said Dr Aaron Evans, a scientist who has been poring over the footage in hopes of identifying the animal. “The squid seen here could belong to different life stages of either of those taxa – and is an exciting example of wild cranchiid behavior, as I cannot think of existing video footage of either of those squid in their natural environment.”
The footage, as you can see, is a little hard to make out. Something called “marine snow”, which is just organic matter floating around in the water column, obscures the tiny little squid that could be destined to grow into an enormous one.
“This glass squid observation adds to the 100 years of mystery surrounding the search for the colossal squid, as the true identification may ultimately never be settled,” Mulrennan continued. “But during these exciting expeditions we also engaged many people – from students to retirees – about the spirit of ocean exploration and we found that Antarctica’s remote watery depths are alive, unique, and worthy of protection.”
