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World's First Photograph of a Giant Live Squid UPDATED with Video!!!

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TOKYO - When a nearly 20-foot long tentacle was hauled aboard his research ship, Tsunemi Kubodera knew he had something big. Then it began sucking on his hands. But what came next excited him most — hundreds of photos of a purplish-red sea monster doing battle 3,000 feet deep.

It was a rare giant squid, a creature that until then had eluded observation in the wild.

Kubodera’s team captured photos of the 26-foot-long beast attacking its bait, then struggling for more than four hours to get free. The squid pulled so hard on the line baited with shrimp that it severed one of its own tentacles.
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“It was quite an experience to feel the still-functioning tentacle on my hand,” Kubodera, a researcher with Japan’s National Science Museum, told The Associated Press. “But the photos were even better.”

For centuries giant squids, formally called Architeuthis, have been the stuff of legends, appearing in the myths of ancient Greece or attacking a submarine in Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” But they had never been seen in their natural habitat, only caught in fishing nets or washed ashore dead or dying.

The Japanese team, capping a three-year effort, filmed the creature in September of last year, finding what one researcher called “the holy grail” of deep-sea animals.

The results were not announced until this week, when they were published in Wednesday’s issue of the British journal, the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Kyoichi Mori, of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, co-authored the study.

Giant squid are the world’s largest invertebrates, having been known to exceed 50 feet.

squid tentacle
Royal Society via Reuters
A researcher analyzes a tentacle club that was torn loose from the giant squid as it untangled itself from an underwater line.
Kubodera said the one he caught on camera was probably an adult female. He said the squid’s tentacle would not grow back, but its life was not in danger.

The photos earned the team cheers from researchers around the world, largely because of the difficulty of finding the mysterious giant.

“That’s getting footage of a real sea monster,” said Randy Kochevar, a deep-sea biologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. “Nobody has been able to observe a large giant squid where it lives. There are people who said it would never be done. It’s really an incredible accomplishment.”

Back in 2001, a different team of researchers captured video imagery of deep-sea squids in four different oceans, but those creatures were not thought to be of the giant Architeuthis variety. Instead, the researchers concluded that they belonged to a different group of squid species known as magnapinnids.

The new photos — taken with strobe lights at 30-second intervals — also shed some new light on the animal’s behavior.

“We think it is a much more active predator than was previously thought,” Kubodera said Wednesday.

“It had previously been seen as more lethargic, and not as strong.”
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In the pictures, the squid’s tentacles can be seen stretching out toward the bait, grasping it and pulling away in a ball.

live giant squid
Royal Society via Reuters
This photo, taken by Japanese scientists in the Pacific Ocean, shows a live giant squid tangled up in a line that extends out from the left side of the frame.

It is then seen struggling to get itself free of the jig attached to the line under the remote-controlled camera. The struggle took place at a depth of between 2,000-3,000 feet.

Kudodera said catching the squid on film was the result of 10 years of sleuthing.

He added that he had some help — from a population of sperm whales.

“We knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived,” he said. “So we used them to lead us to the squid.”

pretty cool story

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co...a.standard.jpg

The oceans will continue to amaze us and startle us for a long, long time. This is great, this taste of the unknown we are still surrounded by. Thanks, Slyboots :)

Watching it struggle was creepy. I don't know why, it just creeped me out. Interesting stuff though!!

its looks amazing, probably not what they expected to catch...

its amazing whats in the ocean depths that we know very little about

That's some creepy stuff, but this stuff never ceases to amaze me. I love this kind of stuff.

I love diving if for no other reason you get to see things that just perhaps no one else on the planet has never noticed. That and of course cell phones don't work three...:D

Nice find on this one Slyboots!

Wow, that's incredible.

I loved watching that. I do have one small minor complaint tho :o

I wish the video was smoother to watch :(

That's a helluva lot of calamari! Yikes!!

Wow, I was beginning to wonder if they'd ever find one of these live... Every so often there seems to be a story about a dead one washing up on a beach somewhere, but they could never seem to find one that was actually living. Man, forget about being afraid of shark attacks, how'd you like to have one of THOSE fellas grab onto you? haha

Not to derail (the squid is fuckin awesome..) but..

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I love diving if for no other reason you get to see things that just perhaps no one else on the planet has never noticed. That and of course cell phones don't work three...

Assuming you had a waterproof cellphone, would it still not work underwater? I had never thought about that, but would the density of the water make transmission impossible?

I think this is awesome. I have seen quite a few programs on people searching for these elusive monsters, and they never succeed. On the flip side, why doesn't it surprise me that our first contact with these creatures, and we rip one of its arms off. We (humans) always manage to some how fuck it up.

Very interesting!

And very cool that we finally got photos of one!

Daknjak:

I prefer not to take the view that Humans always fuck everything up. Certainly we make our mistakes...but that squid might have had its arm torn off by anything...it just happened to be our line.

Awsome. Article said it took him 10 years too. But I'm confused, were they trying to kill it/catch it? Who's fishing line was it?

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Then it began sucking on his hands. But what came next excited him most...

sounds like a bad porno

Daknjak: I wouldn't consider it a big deal that it lost an arm. Squids can grow theirr limbs back without any trouble.

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Originally Posted by Zeraph

Awsome. Article said it took him 10 years too. But I'm confused, were they trying to kill it/catch it? Who's fishing line was it?

It was the bait line that was used to attract it...it was pulling the food off and got entangled. Unfortunate accident, really. I also think the article said the tentacle may not grow back, but the squids life wasn't in danger because of it.

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Originally Posted by Slyboots

Daknjak: I wouldn't consider it a big deal that it lost an arm. Squids can grow theirr limbs back without any trouble.

actually the news reports I've read of it state that squids cannot regenerate limbs, but it is not in any danger of dying. Only some animals can regenerate limbs and appendages, but the squids are not one of them. I don't know why they think they know that but I assume it's based on the smaller squids.

That is pretty kick-ass. I've always been fascinated by "sea monsters."

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Originally Posted by ScottKuma

Daknjak:

I prefer not to take the view that Humans always fuck everything up. Certainly we make our mistakes...but that squid might have had its arm torn off by anything...it just happened to be our line.

I suppose my subtle sarcasm is easily lost, but I still think that for all the time and energy put into finding one of these creatures alive, we still managed to rip off an appendage that will not grow back. Kind of like "Hey you! Giant squid! Over here! Oops! Sorry about your arm dude!"

And I agree a squid can lose an arm on any day of the week, but it lost it on something that was man made, so that means that in the normal course of its life, if it never encountered anything man made, (highly unlikely, but possible) then it might just still have all of its tentacles.

I know I am making a big deal out of nothing, but as humans, it is like we feel the need to get into EVERYTHING, no matter the cost. IMO.

I remember a few years ago when the corpse of a giant squid washed up on the coast somewhere in Australia, and the huge fuss that was made about that. Most of what scientists think we know about giant squids was taken from that well-preserved corpse. It's interesting that there's finally some more information about these "sea-monsters", hopefully we will be able to learn more about them soon.

:hmm: oh great, another reason not to go into the water when i'm at the beach.

well, here's now video footage...

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Researchers catch giant squid
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...etiq/story.jpg
cnn.com
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A Japanese research team has succeeded in filming a giant squid live -- possibly for the first time -- and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed, a researcher said Friday.

The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they captured it off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo earlier this month. The squid, which measured about 24-feet long, died while it was being caught.

"We believe this is the first time anyone has successfully filmed a giant squid that was alive," said Kubodera, a researcher with Japan's National Science Museum. "Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future." (Watch researchers pull in giant squid)

Giant squid, formally called Architeuthis, are the world's largest invertebrates. Because they live in the depths of the ocean, they have long been wrapped in mystery and embellished in the folklore of sea monsters, appearing in ancient Greek myths or attacking the submarine in Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

The captured squid was caught using a smaller type of squid as bait, and was pulled into a research vessel "after putting up quite a fight," Kubodera said.

"It took two people to pull it in, and they lost it once, which might have caused the injuries that killed it," he said.

The squid, a female, was not fully grown and was relatively small by giant squid standards. The longest one on record is 60 feet, he said.

Kubodera and his team had been conducting expeditions in the area for about three years before they succeeded in making their first contact two years ago. Last year, the team succeeded in taking a series of still photos of one of the animals in its natural habitat -- also believed to have been a first.

Until the team's successes, most scientific study of the creatures had to rely on partial specimens that had washed ashore dead or dying or had been found in the digestive systems of whales or very large sharks.

Kubodera said whales led his team to the squid. By finding an area where whales fed, he believed he could find the animals. He also said that, judging by the number of whales that feed on them, there may be many more giant squid than previously thought.

"Sperm whales need from 500 to 1,000 kilograms (1,100-2,200 pounds) of food every day," he said. "There are believed to be 200,000 or so of them, and that would suggest there are quite a few squid for them to be feeding on. I don't think they are in danger of extinction at all."

Am I the only one to think that they had no business trying to catch it, given that the odds of killing the animal were pretty high to begin with?

HighthiefI was about to make the same comment as you. That is great that they found it alive, but they should have LEFT IT ALIVE!!

My mouth is watering. Has anyone discovered a 35 pound lemon out there that we can squeeze on this big delicous discovery? Or maybe peppercorns the side of baseballs?

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Originally Posted by willravel

My mouth is watering. Has anyone discovered a 35 pound lemon out there that we can squeeze on this big delicous discovery? Or maybe peppercorns the side of baseballs?

Forget that, where are we going to find a deep fryer for this thing? Mmmm, calimari....

First one filmed alive and they end up killing it. I mean it's cool and all, but they really screwed up on this one.

Did they have to catch it? Was there no way of monitoring the animal without actually pulling it out of the water? I'm sure there are marine protection groups going apeshit right about now.

It's just a fish! Seriously! Granted it's big, but there's a ton more worth losing hair over than one giant squid :)

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Originally Posted by healer

Screwed up? The first coelacanth that was filmed was inadvertantly killed. Specimens collected from the bottom of the ocean are also inadvertantly killed. If you've been following this, they have been monitoring the areas for years, trying to catch them via video/photo the OP is exactly about that.

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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

Screwed up? The first coelacanth that was filmed was inadvertantly killed. Specimens collected from the bottom of the ocean are also inadvertantly killed.

Which doesn't justify killing or risking killing the animal just to take it's picture.

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Originally Posted by healer

First one filmed alive and they end up killing it.

Did they eat it? Was it as delicious as it looks? I'll bet it was as delecious as it looks. Man, I'd kill for some seafood right now, and this thread is only making it worse.

I'm the kind of person who'd bring a light cherry sauce and a rich, full bodied Riesling with me to Jurassic park to see just what Triceretops tastes like. :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by highthief

Which doesn't justify killing or risking killing the animal just to take it's picture.

No, scientists don't just take it's picture, they examine, investigate, postulate, discuss, check DNA, sample tissue of such specimens. Please look at the OP date and you'll see that they already "took it's picture."

If you think that all they do is "take their picture, then I'd have to agree with you, but to state that it is all that they do, is patently false.

Scientists can make some bold leaps of faith guesses and hypotheticals from bones and their fragments, partially decomposed or digested, even from just images of animals, but to have an actual full specimen is the holy grail for the scientists.

I'm sure if they could have taken it alive and kept it alive it would be an even greater sensation then the Great White Shark that was kept alive in Monterey Bay Aquarium for 198 days and eventually released when it posed a larger threat to the other animals. The point is that researchers want to research the animal and the behaviors it exhibits not normally just the carcass.

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scientists and great white shark
During its stay in Monterey, the shark had grown from a length of 5 feet (152 centimeters) and a weight of 62 pounds (28 kilograms) to 6-foot-4 (193 centimeters) and 162 pounds (74 kilograms). It was about a year old when it was caught.

The aquarium acquired a wealth of information on how best to care for the animals in captivity.

That's very cool that there is something that big on our planet that we still know very little about.

That would be some pretty amazing calamari!

Innerspace/underspace/outerspace.
I bet we won't understand everything about our own planet before we go looking elsewhere, as if...
What a curious species!
Hey, willravel, I like calamari too, but I like pulpo better.
Thanks for sharing, OP!!!!!

new footage of a LIVE one in it's natural habitat...

bioluminesnce... never would have I thought that a behaviour of the giant squid.

http://cbs2.com/video/?id=33847@kcbs.dayport.com

That's just awesome. A little bit frightening though at the same time.

I hope its only the first few steps of many towards finding many new species under that deep blue.

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Originally Posted by ObieX

sounds like a bad porno

LMAO!

Holy crap that thing is wicked. And you wonder why ancient texts have references to things like sea monsters, hell, they really do exist!