A team of scientists has captured the world’s first live images of a giant squid in it’s natural habitat. This is the same mysterious creature thought to have inspired the myth of the “kraken” – a tentacled monster which was reputed to drag ships and sailors to their doom.

The footage of the silvery, 3m long cephalopod, looming out of the darkness nearly 1km below the surface, were taken last July near the Ogasawara islands, 1 000 km south of Tokyo.

The crew spent 400 hours in the submersible and carried out 100 missions in a project to film the giant squid. This massive predator has always been shrouded in secrecy, and every attempt to capture a live giant squid on camera in its natural habitat has failed.

Tsunemi Kubodera, zoologist at Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science:

Many people have tried to capture an image of a giant squid alive in its natural habitat, whether researchers or film crews. But they all failed. These are the first ever images of a real live giant squid.

The key to their success, said Kubodera, was a small submersible rigged with lights invisible to both human and cephalopod eyes. He, a cameraman and the submersible’s pilot drifted silently down to 630m and released a meter-long squid as bait.

The newly captured footage will be screened as part of Discovery Channel’s Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real. The programme will premiere on 27 January abroad.

https://youtu.be/U6wuMuCjTyw

[Source: Discovery]