In the darkness of the abyss, a video camera managed to capture an exceptional document, a giant squid hunting in the Atlantic Ocean. It is about a rare moment when we can see this iconic mollusk, also protagonist of legends and traditions, which moves in its natural habitat in search of a prey. Thanks to a new filming system conceived by researchers from the Oceanographic Foundation in Spain and used between the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas, we can now see how the ‘monster’ of the abyss behaves in the predatory phase.
The hunt for the giant squid in the depths
The first videos on the movements of the giant squid date back to 2004, but they were unclear and defined, especially as the mega-mollusks, annoyed by the bright light of the underwater vehicles, immediately fled. The Spanish researchers therefore developed a new method for detecting the giant squid, one a passive platform in depth, on which a camera has been installed that is able to penetrate the dark and resist the pressure of the abyss, but also not to annoy the eye of the giant squid (which can reach the size of a plate), thanks to a low intensity light, however effective.
The video of the squid hunting
With the stratagem of a fake jellyfish to act as a bait to attract the squid, the cameras recorded the images at depths between 557 and 950 meters. The video shows how the hunting behavior of the giant squid works, which follows the platform for about six minutes before attacking. It is noted, as described in the study published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, that, contrary to what was thought, squid are visual hunters: they ignore the olfactory baits placed nearby in favor of visual cues. The new, non-invasive low-light shooting system therefore allows you to observe the mollusk in its environment without forcing it to rise to the surface.