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Subscribe to RSSScientists say they have captured video of a giant squid in its natural habitat deep in the ocean for the first time. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
The world's first moving images of a giant squid living in its natural habitat have been captured by a team of scientists more than half a mile below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The ghostly pictures of the 10-foot-long giant squid were recorded from a state-of–the-art submersible carrying a three-person team of Japanese zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera, a camera operator and the submersible’s pilot, who made around 100 dives during an expedition last summer.
Although small by giant squid standards – the largest ever caught measured 59 feet – it was the first time a live giant squid had been caught on video deep in the ocean.
Kubodera, from Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, credited the success to the submersible’s silence and hi-tech lighting.
"A giant squid would never appear before a pool of light, that possibility is extremely slim", he told NBC News. "That's why we had to use lights that they wouldn't be able to detect. In fact, they're lights even humans wouldn't be able to see either."
“If you try to approach making a lot of noise, using bright lights, then the squid won't come anywhere near you," he added. “So we sat there in the pitch black, using a near-infrared light invisible even to the human eye, waiting for the giant to approach.''
'It was stunning'
On one dive in July 2012, near the Ogasawara islands, 620 miles south of Tokyo, they finally had their close encounter more than 2,000 feet down and followed the creature even deeper.
“This was the first time for me to see with my own eyes a giant squid swimming,'' Kubodera said. “It was stunning. I couldn't have dreamt that it would be so beautiful. It was such a wonderful creature.”
NHK/NEP/Discovery Channel via Reuters
A giant squid is seen in this video still talken near the Ogasawara Islands in July 2012.
The squid was missing its characteristic two longest tentacles – and scientists don’t know why. Marine biologists said if that pair of tentacles had been intact, the creature would probably have measured up to 23 feet long.
Kubodera’s deep-sea expedition was the culmination of a 10-year project by Japanese broadcaster NHK to capture pictures of the mysterious creature in its habitat. An ultra-sensitive high-definition camera was developed to operate at the ocean depths, using special light that was invisible to the sensitive eyes of the giant squid.
NHK will air its video footage in Japan in a prime-time documentary entitled "Legends of the Deep: Giant Squid" on Jan. 13. It will also be shown on the Discovery Channel on Jan. 27.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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That would make a major plate of fried calamari!
Because I'm on a diet that exludes all deep fried foods, that is the first thing I thought about when I read this article. Dang I'm hungry now.
Yes; Yamamoto has awakened a sleeping giant, and will cook it.
(Sorry for the double post. I thought this line was worth it, even if Yamamoto was the reporter and not the zoologist.)
Yamamoto was the name of the Admiral who led the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Goldiefisher
You beat me!
sorry, not the admiral, you think that there was only one person with the name "yamamoto"?
I love seeing squid when diving - they're beautiful, curious and interactive. That said, I would rather not see this particular specimen. At all. Ever.
The key word to my post was the word "was". I will give you time to look into the meaning of that word, then rethink what you just wrote.
I think you see confused people, in the mirror that is.
Myday - too funny, esp for us WW2 history geeks! TFNJ, did you not get the joke?
if our oceans are so empty that we can find these things, I think there may be a problem.
Wiley, yes I know. That was my way of adding on to the joke, whether successful or not. :)
I'm a WW2 history geek too.
Um, well, ya see, the name "Yamamoto" appears on this page, and it is a giant squid, so there is a fairly obvious joke about Yamamoto and a "giant," allusory of the misquotation attributed erroneously to Admiral Yamamoto following the attack on Pearl Harbor (for which he was responsible) where his sentiment was that they'd just bitten off more than they could chew (and moreover that the bite was unfortunately not one of calimari.)
inMyday, I have to admit to not reading yours or any previous comments before writing that. Just by coincidence the name Yamamoto stood out to me too and I commented. Didn't mean to spoil the joke.
(referring to my last post) Howz that for a single sentence, technically not a "run-on" but stylistically hazardous. Technical writers all over the world are sensing repugnance right now (technical writing generally uses shorter sentences for clarity, as opposed to classic literature and articles published in magazines not found on the grocery store rack by the checkout counter).
No problem TFNJ, I'm surprised you didn't beat me to the joke.
to me it looks like it is dead and the "posed" it for the camera.
That's because I have visions of Calamari dancing in my head.
Now if they could get a decent picture of big foot. I thought it looked matallic at first. Nature is a wonder.
Glad to see my ex wife's mother is doing well, surviving on little fish instead of little children..
Looks fake to me.
But Admiral Yamamoto was quoted after Pearl Harbor as saying:
I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.
Read more at #d7zwLph1uAefqTh8.99
Yamamoto never said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Quit getting your so called facts from movies. There is no written evidence to prove he made such a verbal or written statement. Try reading his life and military service biography sometime.
Mac from Vegas is correct. It's a myth that Yamamoto said that.
FAR more interesting is his encounter with a squadron of Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft. :)
Apologies for diverting the thread discussion from a zoological milestone to WW II facts and myths. It was just a joke, people. Sheeeshe. Take your Concerta and stop chasing verbal rabbits.
ok, on newsvine,so many people try to interject politics into irrelevant threads that its sometimes hard to tell.
Goldiefisher,
"That would make a major plate of fried calamari!"
Calamari is octopus. But squid is good, too.
Mickey, incorrect. Calamari is squid. But Octopus salad is delicious.
@ Mickey & TFNJ,
All I know is, never go to Chinatown in San Francisco and order the "seafood special," that is, unless you are a zoologist looking for previously-undiscovered species. You'll get all sorts of critters. I think the oceanic/marine zoological researchers on the west coast should have lunch there more often. Think of all the boat fuel it would save and help out that green thing fad deal movement
TFNJ,
"Mickey, incorrect. Calamari is squid. But Octopus salad is delicious."
My bad! You're right, my friend. Calamari is squid. I haven't located my head yet today.
Inmyday, Chinatown in NYC is the same way. But if you listen closely soon after ordering any seafood there, you hear the pop of the processed canned food opening. Might as well grab a can of Libbies Potted Meat and enjoy.
@Mickey-1983943
"Question: What is calamari?
What is calamari? Is it squid?
Answer: Calamari is indeed squid.
The squid is a mollusk related to the cuttlefish and octopus. It has ten tentacles, and like its cousin, the octopus, it also has a protective mechanism which releases a dark ink into the water when it senses danger.
The meat is firm and white with a mild, slightly sweet and almost nutty flavor. The squid ranges from one inch in size up to eighty feet, but the most common size for eating is less than twelve inches.
Although the tentacles are edible, the body is the prime section of meat which can be stuffed whole, cut into flat pieces, or sliced crosswise into perfect rings.
Squid lends itself to just about every cooking method imaginable and is often eaten raw in sushi dishes. Squid is available fresh, canned, frozen, dried and pickled.
Squid is also known as calamari, its Italian name. Since calamari seems to sound more palatable than squid, you'll most often see squid recipes listed as calamari on restaurant menus" - Source: h-ttp://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqcalamari.htm
OR
"A South Korean woman was enjoying a plate of calamari when she suddenly felt a painful "pricking, foreign-body sensation" in her mouth. It was later revealed that twelve squid spermatophores had embedded themselves in her "tongue, cheek, and gums." - Source: h-ttp://gawker.com/5918799/woman-bites-into-calamari-gets-mouthful-of-squid-sperm
Talk about having a bad day:)
OR
Fried Calamari
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Ingredients
Directions
Pour enough oil into a heavy large saucepan to reach the depth of 3 inches. Heat over medium heat to 350 degrees F. Mix the flour, parsley, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Working in small batches, toss the squid into the flour mixture to coat. Carefully add the squid to the oil and fry until crisp and very pale golden, about 1 minute per batch. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the fried calamari to a paper-towel lined plate to drain.
Place the fried calamari and lemon wedges on a clean plate. Sprinkle with salt. Serve with the marinara sauce.
Simple Tomato Sauce:
In a large casserole pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add celery and carrots and season with salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and bay leaves and simmer uncovered on low heat for 1 hour or until thick. Remove bay leaves and check for seasoning. If sauce still tastes acidic, add unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon at a time to round out the flavors.
Add 1/2 the tomato sauce into the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Continue with remaining tomato sauce.
If not using all the sauce, allow it to cool completely and pour 1 to 2 cup portions into freezer plastic bags. This will freeze up to 6 months.
Yield: 6 cups
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
East of preparation: easy
Holy Cannoli Mickey you need to get out more :) I may only be 17 and am half Chinese but I sure know Italian. Mmmmmm....Mmmmmmmmm.....................Yumster!
Regards,
Brandon
BTW- Almost forgot "BAM" !!!
inMYday,
"never go to Chinatown in San Francisco and order the "seafood special," that is, unless you are a zoologist looking for previously-undiscovered species. You'll get all sorts of critters."
You're right, inMYday. The Chinese will eat anything, and they never throw any part of the animal away. When they eat a pig, they eat the eyes and all. I was eating one day in a restaurant in Taiwan, and had ordered "Mixed fried noodles". I expected it would have different types of meat on it like pork and beef, which it did have, but I found myself having to pick out the pieces of snake meat with my chopsticks and set them aside on the plate. I have eaten a lot of things in my life, but never snake, and I didn't feel in the mood for starting just then.
What no eight finger jokes...............but still funny.
:) I haven't located my head for a week now. But I am a huge seafood eater. My dad introduced me to raw clams at around 7 and I loved them. I then moved on to sardines. Those two gross many people out, but I like it.
Mickey, I traveled to a few places too, and in one place I ordered the seafood platter. It was a stew of conch and urchin in some sort of sauce. Worse thing I had ever tried. I picked at it then claimed I was full.
TFNJ,
"stew of conch and urchin"
I didn't know people ate that. I just hope it wasn't street urchins. You didn't hear anything about missing children, did you?
@Mickey-1983943,
" I have eaten a lot of things in my life, but never snake, and I didn't feel in the mood for starting just then."
Have you ever tried Chinese Deep Fried Baby Scorpions, Starfish on a Stick or Chicken Feet?
Nothin' Says Yummy Like This "Stuff" In Your Tummy :)
Regards,
Brandon
2fast, I have had chicken feet. In soup. My mom would make it. They are quite tasty.
Mickey, conch I have had before. But it was that sauce that gave it such a terrible taste. I can't verify that it wasn't street urchin. hmmm
2FAST4U1701,
"Have you ever tried Chinese Deep Fried Baby Scorpions, Starfish on a Stick or Chicken Feet?"
No. I haven't eaten any of those things. Chicken feet don't sound like they would have too much meat on them, though. I say, "To each his own!" Snake meat might actually taste good for all I know, but I was not in an adventurous mood that day.
Tastes like chicken..
@Mickey. I've tried deep-fried rattlesnake and it didn't impress me.
It does NOT taste like chicken.
It tasted more like catfish that had been tossed into a dry galvanized bucket and left out in the sun all day at a Willie Nelson outdoor concert before it was fried up in some old grease that had to be melted because it had solidified, like a block of paraffin.
It also had the aroma of my 2nd ex wife, if you know what I mean.
@TFNJ,
Glad you like em. The cartilage breaks down great for soup. Nice and silky gelatin:)
What about Drunken Shrimp? The shrimps are dropped in a tank of alchohol until they become drunk and cooked tableside. It's popular in Hong Kong or at least was anyway:)
I do know that Conch is huge in the Florida Keys my friends father loves it
TFNJ,
"I can't verify that it wasn't street urchin."
A Vietnamese man once told me about a restaurant owner in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) who was arrested for serving baby meat. They were killing babies, cooking them up, and serving them in their restaurant. That's why I asked if it was street urchin. Can you believe all this started because they found a 10 foot squid?
No, never drunken shrimp. Hmm now I must check it out.
Ewww, no. I can say I have eaten a lot of "mystery meat", but I'm pretty sure none was human.
@
"To each his own!" - LOL
"I was not in an adventurous mood that day." - I ran squeeling like a little b!t** when it was offered. Some of my family and friends like it though. :) Heck I don't even speak Cantonese or Mandarin. I speak "Mall" pretty good though :)
Drunken Shrimp is truly wonderful though:) It tastes amazing depending in what kind of alchohol is used. At least they die happy unlike a lobster or crab
Regards,
Brandon
Prayfully Scientists and Humans will allow this creature to live in peace without theiir big lights and cameras!
IT was placed on this earth to live and to live free of human interference!
I'm surprised it hasn't been turned into seafood by Asians yet.
We all know what they were REALLY looking for: Godzilla!
Okay, not hungry anymore.
TNFJ,
The way you posted it made it sound like you were correcting, if you would have said Yamamoto was also the name of the Admiral, then it would have just been a statement and not taken as a reproach, etc...
I clarified that above already ks1971, now go swim with a squid.
What they didnt tell you is when the 50ft sperm whale swam in and ate it for breakfast:)
Since some seem to be on a WW 2 theme, it bugs me Mitsubishi says it is it's its 30th anniversary in the US. No ,it isn't. December 7, 1941 was. They made the Zero.
It had a cameo towards the end of Prometheus. Just a walk on part, no dialog.
You don't have to deep fry your calamari. You could always cooked it in a pan, with a bit of butter and olive oil and garlic. :)
Chinese cookbook: "101 Ways to Wok Your Dog."
So they say this was filmed at a depth about 2,000 ft...isn't that just about 20,000 leagues under the sea?
Okay, movie references aside, I looked it up and:
1 league = 3 nautical miles.
If you hadn't looked it up, my answer would have been I don't know.
Dingle-It is a BOOK by Jules Verne! Made into a movie. The book is MUCH better.
FYI
The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a
depth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea
Not only is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea a book, it also does not refer to the dept the submarine can go in the book, but the distance it travels while submerged.
@ STLMIke: I didn't know Captain Nemo was insolvent, but thanks for clarifying the meaning of 20,000 leagues. LOL. (debt, vs. depth. don't ypu jstu hat tpyos?)
funny msdnc reports 10 ft and AP, rueters, cnn and even fox reports the squid to be 26 ft long,
samething about the lack of reporting about current tv , that has the whole liberal media up in arms, not only selling to al jazzeera but MR. GREEN sold out to a oil tycoon, the only thing AL wants to with thats green is MONEY !
Mike, what does that have to do with squid? Isn't there a more appropriate board for you to bang on AJ?
Immediately after the video the squid was harpooned and brought back to Japan for "scientific research".
Yes; Yamamoto has awakened a sleeping giant, and will cook it.
(sorry for the double post; I was proud of this line and felt that it merits a rerun.)
Then transported to Red Lobster for the All you can Eat Calimari special.
yeah right, researchers will let people go hungry before ever considering cooking it...they take this stuff very serious. There was a discovery show about fishing, a tribe was hungry and wanted the giant fish to eat since it was dying, the show did finally give it to them in the end, but not without red tape and some drama over it.
It's the start of the new tv show "Squid Wars."
Not Japanese researches, Roadlesstraveled. Whales killed for purposes of "research" end up in stew pots all over Japan. It's a convenient excuse to get around protections for endangered species.
While I think capturing the Giant Squid on film is a fantastic feat, I couldn't help but notice the squid looks hooked on something. Not really liking the thought that the squid either was injured or died just to see it on film.
Folks the research quip was in reference (at least I think it was) to the Japanese whaling program - they claim their whaling fleet is for research even though they sell a lot of whale meat in Japan for consumption.
Humans are a disgusting species===self included.
All comments on this issue confirm these words!
@sillyshrinks....chill out. At least this time we all are cracking jokes and not arguing politics:)
Japs kill whales for lunch, oops, I mean research.
I used to tell my boss that there was a jap midget flying around outside. A little nip in the air.
He looks delicious.
A wondrous, beautiful creature... that would be just as wondrous and beautiful on a plate with some butter and asparagus.
Hard to believe that even in this day and age, there are animals that humanity has not yet captured and devoured. But we will persevere!
Especially the tentacles!
Another species for Japans scientific research. Bet they are disappointed they can't herd them into a small cave and slaughter them.
What are you going on about?
Of course they can. They just haven't tried yet.
I think that was a dolphin hunting reference.
What do you think they are doing? They are checking the species count so they can decide if they can be cultivated! ;O
A ten foot squid is pretty sizable, but the US Navy reports evidence of their nuclear submarines returning to base with evidence of squid attacks on the nose of those subs (they are coated with a rubber sort of sound deadening layer, and are not bare metal) and their estimate of the squid size exceeds 100 feet total. Of course, until some 'scientist' actually gets pictures of one that size, they just 'don't exist' (in their minds, anyway).
And scarring on sperm whales (their only natural predictor) confirms the length at over 100 feet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7A-M4yyjwc
Here there be sea monsters!
BTB,
aka Colossal Squid or whatever genus comes after colossal (Godzilla squid??)
Looks like the sushi special of the day!
looks like and alien to me...at first..lol....
it could be. If aliens were to send out a probe, why not disguise it as a squid?
Wonder how much cocaine and pot one of those aliens can hold?
looks a little like Joy Behar to me.
This is so cool!! I love squid - they are so amazing and just fascinate me (I have a giant squid tattoo on my leg)! I hope the Discovery Channel will have the special online or -even better- put it on Netflix asap!
I have been following the giant squid for years. It is amazing to me that such a giant creature, on of the primary foods of sperm whales, is so plentiful and in so many oceans around the world, yet we know so little about them and are just now, for the first time capturing live images of it.
Another Japanese scientist caught still images a decade or so ago. I group of scientists in New Zealand caught a baby one an inch long or so, but couldn't keep it alive. Before that, all we have seen are dead ones. What else is out there?
What else is out there is the stuff nightmares are made of, LOL.
MYday
“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” Stephen King
Oh WOW. It's so haunting! That shimmery skin is pretty. :)
Yum!
You mean the japanese filmed it and didn't eat it?
It's hard to aim a harpoon gun off of infrared light :p
I'm sure they are just itching to hunt this thing to the point of extinction in the guise of scientific research, when in reality they will use its ink for eastern medicine's cure for erectile disfunction.
Any one that could hunt one of these things has a pair and functions quite well. These creatures may go the way of Darwin but not because of man...this one is a baby.
Now you're just randomly expanding (and combining) random problems in Asia with no regard for fact. It's the Japanese that hunt whales for "scientific research", and they're unlikely to do so for giant squid (really hard to find, you know). It's the Chinese, meanwhile, that demand endangered animal parts for absurd medicines, and if they want squid ink they can get all they want since squid is NOT endangered.
Can some people really not read a simple article about sea creatures without whining about vaguely similar but unrelated problems?
God sure gave that thing a nice paint job!
Oh no. There goes Tokyo.
Speaking of, what's the status of that new Godzilla movie?
For the record, we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean. Even though we have had equipment that can go to such depths, it is very difficult to stay there for any length of time. Also, the marine life there is scarce and hard to find. As for the giant squid, I doubt if there are many located at any one place. This would make it very hard to find. We are still discovering new types of life at these depths on almost every dive.
For the record, from a purely quantitative point of view, we have far far far more knowledge of our oceans than the surface of the moon. It's not even remotely close.
Mitchell
Everything in the world is changing,somethings can be very scary.
Changing? This creature was here long before we were. Your arrogance is scary.
wow Bob, if you think Char's arrogance is scary....why do you think of our President's??
What's scary about it? And what exactly is "changing" in reference to giant squid?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm so what do you think we look like to him? I think he is beautiful and just the fact that he has survived all the horrible things we have done to his enviornment is encouraging!
What exactly have we done to the deep ocean that's so bad you'd expect it to kill off organisms of this size?
If we're just now getting video of a giant squid in its natural habitat, maybe Bigfoot is real and we just haven't been able to catch it yet.
On the other hand, people have been eating squid and finding dead bodies of giant squids for hundreds of years but no Bigfoot bodies so far....
maybe bigfoot is just better at hide and seek than we all are!
bigfoot=bullsh*t ;)
It's hard telling what is still to be uncovered from the ocean.
I give it a week before they hunt it down and kill it to serve on a platter or dry out and snort as medicine. Dragged behind it on the fishing boat will undoubtedly be the dying body of some other critically endangered species. Woo Hoo!! Yay Japan, killing off the worlds sea life one after the next.
And killing a giant squid for food would be bad because... why? It's not like they're endangered (at least, not due to human action anyway). If anything, they're probably overpopulated because there aren't as many whales around to eat them.
Do you cry when someone orders calamari rings?
I cry if they don't bring a dipping sauce with it.
I try my best to swallow my tears... and then I short the server on the tip.
28yoAmerican,
"Woo Hoo!! Yay Japan, killing off the worlds sea life one after the next."
The Japanese are big consumers of sea food. They do not have a lot of beef like we do, and imported beef is very expensive. People have to eat something or else we will become an endangered species.
Have you seen the price of Kobe beef these days? Even rare giant squid would be cheaper.
Ya know guys, I'm just getting over the Jaws jitters. Now this! ha ha
Is it just me, or does the top image look like the opera singer from The Fifth Element?
I was thinking the aliens in The Abyss.
The giant squid in Sphere
That's no stinking squid....that's NANCY PELOSI!!!
wow...I see it now:O lmao
The say the eye is a window to the soul.
Gee, I wonder why it glows in the dark?
maybe it was hanging around that Jap Nuke plant.
Yep. And if only the divers had turned around... GODZILLA!
Is it just me or does it look like its flipping off the camera?;)
That's probably a distortion of the special light they're using; if you recall, their camera uses a type of light that is invisible to the naked eye, but not the camera.