\n<\/p>\n
In March, Kat Bolstad returned from an Antarctic expedition where she had used a new camera system specially built to search for the elusive colossal squid.<\/p>\n
No one had captured footage of one of these animals swimming in the deep sea. She didn\u2019t spot one on this voyage either.<\/p>\n
On the day she left the ship, though, Dr. Bolstad, a deep sea cephalopod biologist, learned about a recent video taken on March 9 from the South Sandwich Islands. fA dive team searching for new marine life, in a Schmidt Ocean Institute submersible, had happened upon a young cephalopod, and people wanted Dr. Bolstad\u2019s help identifying it.<\/p>\n
The juvenile was about 30 centimeters long (a little less than a foot), with a transparent body, delicate arms and brown spots. It was a colossal squid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cPretty much as soon as I saw the footage, I knew there was a good chance,\u201d Dr. Bolstad, a cephalopod biologist at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, said. She consults remotely for Schmidt\u2019s Antarctic work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 100 years since the colossal squid was formally described in a scientific paper. In its adult form, the animal is larger than the giant squid, or any other invertebrate on Earth, and can grow to 6 or 7 meters long, or up to 23 feet.<\/p>\n
Scientists\u2019 first good look at the species in 1925 was incomplete \u2014 just arm fragments from two squid in the belly of a sperm whale. Adults are thought to spend most of their time in the deep ocean.<\/p>\n
A full-grown colossal squid occasionally appears at the ocean\u2019s surface, drawn up to a fishing boat while it\u2019s \u201cchewing on\u201d a hooked fish, Dr. Bolstad said. Younger specimens have turned up in trawl nets.<\/p>\n
Yet until now, humans had not witnessed a colossal squid at home, swimming in the deep Antarctic sea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
One reason they\u2019re so elusive is the sheer size of that home. Additionally, the squid are probably avoiding us, Dr. Bolstad said. \u201cThey\u2019re very aware of their surroundings, because any disturbance in the water column around them might mean a predator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sperm whales, the squid\u2019s main predator, can dive up to two kilometers (1.25 miles). Perhaps to help them avoid the whales, colossal squid have evolved the world\u2019s largest eyes \u2014 bigger than a basketball.<\/p>\n
They also have \u201ca unique combination of suckers and hooks on the arms and the tentacles,\u201d Dr. Bolstad said, which is how she was able to confirm that the young sea creature in the new footage was a colossal squid.<\/p>\n
The footage was taken by a remotely operated submersible called SuBastian, which the Schmidt Ocean Institute uses to explore the deep sea. This particular dive was a partnership with Ocean Census, an initiative to discover unknown species. The submersible stopped for a few minutes on descent to film the small, transparent cephalopod.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very exciting,\u201d said Christine Huffard, a biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California who wasn\u2019t involved in the expedition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n