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Giant Squid

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Japanese scientists videotaped this female giant squid, alive, at the water's surface
On December 4, 2006, Japanese scientists videotaped this female giant squid alive.
Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Museum of Nature and Science of Japan/AP

The largest giant squid ever recorded was nearly 16 meters (50 feet) long and may have weighed nearly a ton. You’d think such a huge animal would be hard to miss. But the ocean is vast…and giant squid live deep down. So they remain elusive and are rarely seen. In fact, until a video was made in 2006, no scientist had ever filmed a giant squid. A female had just attacked bait suspended beneath a Japanese research vessel off the Ogasawara Islands. As the camera whirred, the research team pulled the 7-meter (24-foot) squid to the surface alive. The milestone event was recorded on videotape, enabling people around the world to finally see a living, breathing giant squid in action.

…long arms radiating from its center and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas…

– Description of fictional giant squid in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

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The giant squid’s enormous eyes help it find prey in the dark ocean depths.

Giant and Cool
With eyes as big as human heads and powerful beaks that slice apart prey, the giant squid is pretty cool. But wait, there’s more. Like the first time a live giant squid was captured on film, and how we know about its deadly struggles with sperm whales—the largest toothed whale in the sea.

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Sections

Life & Natural History

Squid size comparison chart: Lycoteuthis springeri (10-12cm), Leachia atlantica (up to 12cm), Promachoteuthis sp. (up to 5cm), Batoteuthis scolops (up to 20cm).

The ocean holds an estimated 500 species of squid—including three species of giant squid and another large species known as the colossal squid. It’s believed the giant squid lives about five years, and in that time, reproduces only once. Talk about pressure.

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Science

Smithsonian Zoologist Dr. Clyde Roper in front of the museum's stored cephalopod collection.

Everything we know about the biology of giant squid comes from studying specimens that wash up on beaches or come up in nets. Even though scientists like Clyde Roper have been diving for years, hoping to someday observe a live giant squid in its own habitat, the inky blackness of the deepest waters.

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Human Connections

A giant squid attacks a boat—something that has not been known to happen in real life.

From 1874—the first photo of a giant squid. Draped over someone’s bathtub, of all places. Go back in time and it gets even stranger—beached creatures (perhaps squid?) that were mistaken for mermen. From myth to curiosity to scientific specimen, we retrace 300 years of squid history.

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Comments

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 12/20/2009 - 4:35pm.

Cool story

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 01/18/2011 - 11:45am.

yeah

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/25/2009 - 12:50am.

I think that the website has many cool and intereting facts. The pictures are awesome! I would like to see videos of the animals. I am 11 years old from Denver, Colorado.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 10:48am.

Firstly hello from england... I totally agree with you that there should be video's on this website about encounters with 'deep sea creatures'. I am currently completing a project for my science teacher about the ocean and the things living in it, that should be in a safe habitat but are actually in a dangerous, polluted one. I hope the project will demonstrate my love for the ocean and all organisms's in it. I am 11 - 12 tommorrow though and would love to hear back from you about any facts about the ocean.
Greetings from Manchester, England!!! Hope to hare back from you soon

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 6:38pm.

I like the photos of the giant squid, but I would have loved to see the live video!!?

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 11:00am.

There is video now - linked in the introduction text near the top of the page. All in Japanese, but totally amazing footage!

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/19/2010 - 12:47pm.

I think Octopuses are beautiful. I want to be one when I grow up/

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/01/2010 - 11:01am.

this is pretty cool and i never knew about the giant squid and i grew up by the ocean

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/04/2010 - 12:31pm.

Wow!!! That is so cool. The only stories I had heard of giant squids was before I was born and some even said that they were myths. It is cool to know that you might still be able to see them today.

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 11/26/2010 - 2:53pm.

this is so cool

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 10:16am.

I encountered a tiny giant squid in Alaska Bering Sea while fishing I would like to sent u the picture how....uh we ate the squid but not the picure i have

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 11/09/2011 - 12:27am.

Hello, I believe you need to clone a giant squid from a cold water find. Here's why, that is the only way you will be able to gather all of the cones and rods or whatever, the eyeball of the squid uses. You need that information to figure which illumination system to use. You need to know that the squid will not see the light you are using in conjunction with the camera. You see, we have infrared, UV night vision or starlight, and the fact is any light that causes a cone or rod to fire is going to startle the squid. If the light we are using to illuminate, doesn't cause a single photoreceptor to fire, then we can brightly light up the area with a wavelength of light that the animal cannot see. So, in full effect, we do not need an adult to enable us to know who to light up the area, we do and must know which wavelengths of light cause the photoreceptors to fire bioelectic impulses that send messages on the neuralogical pathways. So, all we need to do is use light that they can't see. Other than that, we need cones and rods to define which wavelengths the cones and rods or photo receptors are responding too. A sample of cells.

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 11/18/2011 - 6:59am.

hi i like it and i know it real

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/26/2012 - 10:03am.

wow!!!!This is amazing!Me and my friend are learning so much!Thank you so much!!!

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