Few ocean animals have spent so long suspended between reality and myth as the giant squid.
The enduring mystery behind these animals resurfaced after archival footage, identified as the first recording of a live giant squid, was shared to Instagram.
Here’s what to know
The Instagram post says a key breakthrough came in 2006, when Japanese researchers used bait near the Ogasawara Islands to capture the first footage of a living giant squid.
Up until that point, the species was known mostly through carcasses that washed ashore. As the video’s poster, Histopedia, said, “These animals can reach around 43 feet in length, yet they spend their lives in the dark depths of the ocean, making encounters extremely rare.”
The post also mentioned two previous sightings that helped shape our understanding of the rare animal.
In 2012, scientists recorded a live giant squid in its natural deep-sea habitat, revealing its elusive behavior and massive size. In 2019, another expedition documented a living giant squid in the Gulf of Mexico.
More background
With its enormous size and the fact that it is hard to find, the giant squid has fascinated scientists and storytellers for generations. It lives far below the sunlit surface, where pressure is intense, light is limited, and direct observation is quite rare.
The first confirmed footage of a living individual took generations to capture despite centuries of speculation. Washed-up remains could show scientists what the animal looked like, but not how it hunted, moved, or behaved in its natural environment. Researchers have made headway in understanding these animals by combining deep-sea exploration with more precise imaging tools. That progress can be seen in the timeline itself, from the bait-assisted 2006 footage near the Ogasawara Islands to live recordings gathered during the 2012 and 2019 expeditions.
These methods give scientists the opportunity to study rare animals without the guesswork and with more direct evidence. Every confirmed sighting can add to what researchers know about range, behavior, and habitat.
It had been a tough and nearly fishless trip for Capt. Damon Sacco and his four anglers aboard his boat, the Castafari, on Wednesday. Long hours of trolling off the coast of Massachusetts had only produced one yellowfin tuna, which was the target species that day.
“We had to make a move, so I ran east until I saw birds, bait, and tuna,” Sacco tells Outdoor Life. “We really got into the tuna. They were everywhere, and we started loading up on fish to 90 pounds. But they were all sizes.” The water was about 1,400 feet deep, and the birds and tuna appeared to be feeding on squid.
“That’s what attracted a giant marlin,” says Sacco, a 58-year-old with years of offshore charter experience. “It was there to eat tuna.”
His anglers had just finished catching and boating several tuna, and there only were two lines out when he spotted an enormous fin slicing through the water toward the boat. At first he thought it was a huge shark. Then he saw a neon-blue flash in the clear water. (Yahoo news)
