First Ever Filmed Capture of a Giant Squid

The mysterious giant octopuses of Jules Verne are a reality well known by scientists, even if in reality they are squids.

But now Japanese scientists got a breakthrough video, the first ever capture of a giant squid, shedding new light on the famously elusive creatures.

The capture moment led the scientists to conclude that the mysterious beast is capable of high-speed movement through the depths. "It struggled furiously to escape by spouting water from its funnel. This means they can actually swim pretty fast, in addition to their normal movement just drifting in deep waters," said Tsunemi Kubodera, the research team's leader, a scientist with Japan's National Science Museum.

The team hooked the 24-foot (7-meter) squid earlier this month near the island of Chichijima, some 600 miles (960 kilometers) southeast of Tokyo, using a line baited with small squid and shot video of the russet-colored giant as it was hauled to the surface. "The squid, a young female, put up quite a fight as the team attempted to bring it aboard and the animal died from injuries sustained during the capture" said Kudobera.

Until now, scientific knowledge of the giant squid was based on photographs and the tentacles of dead specimens when they happened to wash up onshore now and then or vomited by/from the stomach of sperm whales, which regularly feed on giant squids.

This individual is quite small among these giants. That record belongs to a specimen found in 1887 that measured 60 feet (18 m) from end to end. Giant squid are the world's largest invertebrates, but because they live at such great depths they have never been studied in the wild.

Kubodera's team filmed for the first time ever this species in 2004 when it used a remote underwater camera. "The capture may be a sign that giant squid are more plentiful than had been thought, Kubodera said, and the event could help open up more fruitful research into the poorly understood animal."

"Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future," he said.

Photo credit: National Science Museum