A team of scientists funded by NOAA just recorded a video of a giant squid, the largest and rarely seen invertebrate on Earth, swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first giant squid sighting anywhere in the world in seven years.
The deep-sea dwelling giant squid has been the subject of seamen’s lore and literature for centuries. The largest giant squid ever measured was 59 feet long and weighed about a ton. This one was probably a juvenile and only about 10 feet long. It was attracted to the video camera by a ring of LED lights at the end of a mile-long plastic line that was made to look like a bioluminescent jellyfish.
The scientists were on the Research Vessel Point Sur, about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans and within sight of Appomattox, Shell’s largest floating oil drilling platform in the gulf, on a 15-day trip. They recorded the giant squid on the camera’s fifth deployment, at about 2,490 feet. (The ocean floor was at 7,000 feet.)
The short video clip at first shows the giant squid’s tentacles sneaking into the camera’s view. At first it stayed on the edge of the screen, as if trying to figure out what the LED lure actually was. Then the entire squid swims into view, what The New York Times described as a mass of twisting arms and tentacles. Two tentacles reach out and grab for the lure; after a few seconds, the giant squid, probably puzzled, disappears off screen into the darkness.
“Even just a hundred miles off the coast, we’re seeing things that they put on the corner of maps – you know, ‘Here lie monsters,’” said Sönke Johnson, leader of the expedition. “You could be out here, and beneath you are giant squid, the things of our wildest imagination! They’re part of our land, they’re part of our country.” Read more and see the video:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/science/giant-squid-cephalopod-video.html
