According to the California Institute for Marine Research, the world’s largest squid species, the giant squid, was caught up in video while swimming in its natural habitat for the first time.
According to the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the squid, as its name suggests, could grow to 23 feet long and 1,100 pounds, the world’s heaviest invertebrate. However, the creature the lab caught in the video was a boy with a lot of legs.
It was recorded on March 9th at a depth of approximately 2,000 feet in the Southern Sandwich Islands of the South Atlantic, according to a news release from the nonprofit. The squid was officially named and identified in 1925, but was not recorded alive to this instance.
Officially named Mesonychoteuthis Hamiltoni, Squid was recorded during a 35-day expedition aimed at finding new marine life, the release says. Scientists on the Institute’s Forcol research vessel were filmed videos of the squid in a remotely operated vehicle called Subasuti.
Squid lost its invisible body as he grew older, and dying adults had previously been documented by fishermen, but were not seen alive at such depths.
“It’s exciting to see a huge in situ footage of a boy, and humble to think he doesn’t think there’s a human being,” said Kat Bolstad of Auckland Institute of Technology. According to the Institute, Bolstad was consulted to verify the video. “For 100 years, prey remains in the stomachs of whales and seabirds, and we mostly encountered them as harvested teeth predators.”
According to the lab, during the January expedition, the team also filmed their first video of a glacier glass squid (called Galiteuthis glacialis). The creature has never been seen in its natural environment before.
“It is surprising to see two different squids first on a back-to-back expedition, showing just how little we have seen the spectacular inhabitants of the South Sea,” said Gyotika Wilmani, executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
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