Research team aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s vessel, Falkor, captured astonishing footage of a juvenile squid drifting silently through the abyssal waters between Argentina and Antarctica.
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| The colossal squid seen alive in deep sea| (Picture: Schmidt Ocean Institute) |
Falkor Vessel Finds Alive Colossal Squid After 100 Years.
We’ve long known about the colossal squid—mostly from the haunting remains found in the bellies of deep-diving whales—but until now, no one had ever witnessed one in its natural, shadowy domain. On March 9, a remotely piloted drone descended to nearly 600 meters near the remote South Sandwich Islands and recorded the first-ever images of a baby colossal squid in the wild.
The squid, a glassy, translucent creature about 30 centimeters long, floated like a ghost in the frigid dark. With its delicate tentacles gently pulsing, it seemed to glide rather than swim—like some alien being from the unexplored depths. As it matures, this creature will grow into one of the ocean’s true titans: an adult "Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni" can reach up to seven meters in length and weigh as much as 500 kilograms, making it the heaviest invertebrate known to science. That’s more than four times the length of the average human and roughly the weight of a grand piano, all packed into a soft-bodied, elusive mollusk that’s rarely seen, let alone filmed.
Schmidt Ocean Institute’s YouTube channel has the footage of this rare mysterious creature never seen alive since its discovery in 1925.
Unlike the more famous giant squid, which is built for speed and ambush, the colossal squid is more of a deep-sea bruiser, with rotating hooks embedded in the suckers of its arms—especially on the middle ones—making it a formidable predator in the pitch-black waters of the Southern Ocean. These adaptations are likely essential for survival in the brutal ecosystem surrounding the South Sandwich Islands, a chain of volcanic, ice-laced islands so remote and inhospitable that few ships venture near. Despite their isolation, these islands and the surrounding seas teem with marine life, including toothfish, penguins, and the colossal squid’s natural predator: the sperm whale.
Marine biologist Dr. Kat Bolstad from Auckland University of Technology, who helped authenticate the footage, reflected on the discovery with a mix of awe and humility. “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,” she said . For more than a century, we’ve only known these creatures from fragments—chewed-up remains in the guts of whales, or frozen corpses hauled up by baffled fishermen. Even then, most of those sightings involved adults that had already perished.
Source - CNN
Know more about how "Falkor"(too) vessel works with help of this video.
The footage also marks another milestone for the "Falkor" crew, who earlier this year filmed the first-ever video of the glacial glass squid, another rarely seen denizen of the Antarctic deep. While similar in appearance, the colossal squid can be distinguished by its terrifying arm hooks and its sheer size. These rare glimpses into the twilight zones of our planet remind us how much of Earth’s ocean remains uncharted—and how many legendary creatures might still be out there, drifting just beyond the edge of our awareness.
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