Even with all the science and technology around today, still so little is known about the deep seas and the life forms that reside there. The giant squid, described as “monster of the deep,” the legendary “Kraken” is one of the inhabitants of this dark, mysterious and barely explored area of the ocean. Until recently, this beautiful but large and intimidating creature had never been filmed in its own natural environment.
Approximately 9 miles off the cost of Chichi Island in the Northern Pacific Ocean, at a depth of nearly 3,000 feet, rare footage was captured of what is estimated to be a 26-foot giant squid, seemingly missing two of its largest tentacles (possibly because of fighting). But even with its enormous size, this particular specimen doesn’t even come close to the maximum size that these amazing creatures can reach. Females can get up to 43 feet long, and some ‘freak’ squids have reached even larger sizes. Some claims have documented giant squids of up to 66 feet in length.
Prior footage of giant squids have typically been of dead squids that have come up in fishing nets or washed up on shore. This is the first time one has ever been captured in its own environment. It took 100 missions and more than 400 hours to gather the rare, 10-minute footage filmed by researchers from Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science with the help of the Discovery Channel and the Japanese public broadcaster, NHK.
“It was shining and so beautiful,” museum researcher, Tsunemi Kubodera told Planet Save. “I was so thrilled when I saw it first hand, but I was confident we would, because we rigorously researched the areas we might find it, based on past data.”
I’ve always found it amazing that, even with all we’ve discovered about the inhabitants of Earth, there is still so much more to see and learn. This beautiful creature is just one of so many examples.
