Giant squid filmed in sea depths
January 9, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A Japanese-led team of scientists has captured on film the world's first live images of a giant squid, journeying to the depths of the ocean in search of the mysterious creature thought to have inspired the myth of the "kraken," a tentacled monster.
The images of the silvery, three-meter long cephalopod, looming out of the darkness nearly 1 kilometer below the surface, were taken last July by NHK and the Discovery Channel near Japan's Ogasawara islands.
"Many people have tried to capture an image of a giant squid alive in its natural habitat. But they all failed," said Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, who led the team.
"These are the first ever images of a real live giant squid," Kubodera said, adding that the key to the success 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 630 meters and released a one-meter-long squid as bait. In all, they descended around 100 times. As the squid neared they began to film, following it into the depths to around 900 meters.
The images of the silvery, three-meter long cephalopod, looming out of the darkness nearly 1 kilometer below the surface, were taken last July by NHK and the Discovery Channel near Japan's Ogasawara islands.
"Many people have tried to capture an image of a giant squid alive in its natural habitat. But they all failed," said Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, who led the team.
"These are the first ever images of a real live giant squid," Kubodera said, adding that the key to the success 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 630 meters and released a one-meter-long squid as bait. In all, they descended around 100 times. As the squid neared they began to film, following it into the depths to around 900 meters.
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