Kyoichi Mori, of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, was co-author of the study. 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. – Remains of 250 giant squids found dead or dying documented over 150 years – Have eight arms and two tentacles, used to find food and fight off predators
– Preyed on by sperm whales and reef sharks – Diet consists mainly of fish and other squids – Have largest eyes in the animal kingdom, up to 25cm in diameter – Females up to 18m, males rarely exceed 9m – World’s largest invertebrates, up to 900kg The mysterious giant squids, formally called Architeuthis, have for centuries been the stuff of legend, appearing in the myths of ancient Greece, or attacking a submarine in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.īut they had previously been seen only when they were caught in fishing nets or washed ashore dead or dying – never alive in their natural habitat.īut the Japanese team, capping a three-year effort, filmed the creature in September of the past year, finding what one researcher called “the holy grail” of deep sea animals. “It was quite an experience to feel the still-functioning tentacle on my hand,” Kubodera, a researcher with Japan’s National Science Museum, said in an interview with reporters. The squid pulled so hard on the line that held the shrimp bait that it severed one of its own tentacles. Observing a giant squid in the wild for the first time, Kubodera’s team captured photos of a 8m-long, purplish-red sea monster attacking its bait about 900m undersea, then struggling for more than four hours to get free. But what came next excited him most – hundreds of vivid photos of a rare giant squid in its natural habitat deep undersea.
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