How scientists caught footage of 'the kraken' after centuries of searching

[Judi Lynn]

By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer about 3 hours ago

Tricking the giant squid's basketball-size eyes may have been the key.



Eight long elegant legs unfurl as the squid inspects the e-jelly in the Gulf of Mexico. (Image credit: Screengrab of video courtesy of Edie Widder and Nathan Robinson)

Architeuthis dux — the world's largest known squid — is surprisingly camera shy.

The elusive giant squid has wriggled its way into folklore for thousands of years, inspiring tales of fearsome krakens with bodies as large as islands. In reality, A. dux is a tad smaller than that, capable of growing to about 46 feet (14 meters) long — about the length of a semi-trailer.

But despite their size, these cephalopods are almost never seen in the water; most observations of the behemoths come from dead or dying squids that wash up on shores or become ensnared in deep-sea trawling nets. That finally changed in 2012, when a team of marine scientists filmed a young A. dux in its natural habitat, about 2,000 feet (630 m) below the sea south of Japan.

Now, a study published online in the journal Deep Sea Research Part 1: Oceanographic Research Papers delves into why these giants of the deep are so elusive, and explains how a team of researchers was able to capture the first footage of A. dux in its natural habitat in 2012, and again in 2019 in the Gulf of Mexico.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/first-footage-giant-squid-jellyfish-lure.html?utm_source=notification

[soothsayer]

1. Very clever