Out in the cold, dark waters of the South Atlantic — nearly 2,000 feet beneath the surface — a group of stunned researchers aboard the Falkor Too captured something that, until now, was basically a myth with tentacles: a living colossal squid. And no, it wasn’t writhing on a fishing line or half-eaten in a whale’s gut. This one was alive, swimming, and eerily translucent.
According to an April 15 release from the Schmidt Ocean Institute, this is the first time the species — Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni — has ever been filmed in its natural habitat. That’s right. In over a century since its discovery, we’ve only encountered this creature in bits and pieces, typically posthumously. But now, thanks to an underwater drone named SuBastian (because of course it’s named after a submarine robot from a Disney movie), we’ve finally seen one of these deep-sea beasts alive and in action.
The squid, which measured just over five inches long, is considered a juvenile. Don’t be fooled by the baby size — this species eventually grows to around 23 feet long and can weigh more than 1,100 pounds. That makes it the heaviest invertebrate on the planet. That’s a lot of calamari — assuming you could get past the glassy, alien horror-movie look.
“It’s exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist,” said Dr. Kat Bolstad of Auckland University of Technology. And honestly, thank God for that. Because if one of these things ever figures out what a submarine is, we might be in trouble.
For decades, scientists only knew about colossal squids from remnants pulled out of sperm whale stomachs or off longlines used to catch toothfish. Occasionally, dying adults would turn up tangled in nets — a haunting reminder that nature still holds plenty of secrets. But this March, as the research vessel Falkor Too explored the chilly depths near the South Sandwich Islands, SuBastian got lucky.
Even more incredible? This wasn’t a one-time fluke. Just a few months earlier in January, the same vessel captured the first-ever footage of a glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis) off Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea. That makes two elusive deep-sea squids recorded back-to-back. For an ocean we’ve barely scratched the surface of, this is practically a squid streak.
“The first sighting of two different squids on back-to-back expeditions is remarkable and shows how little we have seen of the magnificent inhabitants of the Southern Ocean,” said Jyotika Virmani, executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
And she’s right. For all our talk of space exploration, the deep ocean remains the final frontier — teeming with lifeforms that are bizarre, alien, and completely indifferent to us. Maybe that’s why discoveries like this still matter: in a world where everything feels Google-able, it’s refreshing to know some mysteries still require a submersible and a sense of wonder.
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