Live Giant Squid Photographed for the First Time
Japanese zoologists have photographed and filmed a live giant squid, one of the strangest and most mysterious creatures in the world.
Until this first of it's kind picture of a giant squid, the only evidence that giant squids exist was from dead squid washed up on remote shores.
The breakthrough came from Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum in Tokyo and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association. They created a special trap, using a camera, strobe light, timer, depth sensor, data logger and a depth-activated switch attached to two mesh bags filled with bait.
The unique device was lowered into the water, with flash pictures taken every 30 seconds for the duration of the mission. An eight-metre giant squid became caught on the hook. The squid tried to get itself off the hook as the camera snapped away, documenting precious information about how the squid is able to propel itself.
Previously thought of as being lazy and buoyant, the giant squid is actually an active predator that attacks its prey horizontally, and its two long tentacles coil up into a ball after the strike, rather like pythons that rapidly envelop their prey in their sinuous curves.
