Giant squid captured on film

 

By CLAIRE BATES, Mail online - More by this author » Last updated at 12:53pm on 14th February 2007 Comments (1)

A giant adult squid has been captured underwater on video for the first time off the coast of Chichijima Island in the North Pacific.

The footage found the reclusive beast is far less sluggish than once thought, and darts towards prey while emitting blinding flashes of light.

Japanese scientists believe the Taningia danae is an aggressive predator which uses the light to disorientate its victims.

 

VIDEO: See the giant squid launch its attack

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Writing in The Royal Society journal, they revealed how they lured the squid with a bait so they could film its behaviour.

The video was taken at depths of 240m to 940m and shows the creature reaching speeds of up to 2.5 metres per second as it attacked the bait, enveloping it in its eight tentacles.

"They emitted short bright light flashes from their large arm-tip photophores before final assault, which might act as a blinding flash for prey as well as a means of measuring target distance in a dark deep-sea environment," the scientists from the National Science Museum in Tokyo concluded.

They found the squid could move both forwards and backwards and rapidly changed direction by flapping its large muscular fins.

Wow! :speechless: :wideeyed:

 

Thanks! I've always wanted to see one of those.

 

:huh: Suddenly the world feels just a little bit smaller.

That is insane....so maybe all those old sailors weren't making up those squid stories.

That is insane....so maybe all those old sailors weren't making up those squid stories.

 

Nope - they certainly weren't!!:rolleyes:

And have you seen the shark that preys on it??

nooooooooooo!!!!!!!! I'm never going in the ocean!

nooooooooooo!!!!!!!! I'm never going in the ocean!

 

And do you know how much was actually paid for that squid film??:rolleyes:

How much? They didn't do a good job of hiding the wires.

How much? They didn't do a good job of hiding the wires.

 

About 50,000 squid, of course!!:P

oh my haha