Colossal Squid Seen Near New Zealand

Scientists have been searching for a colossal squid near New Zealand, and they believe they finally found one.

Last year, a group of scientists attempting to capture footage of a colossal squid, the largest invertebrate on Earth, in its natural habitat may have hooked their prize when one of their underwater cameras captured a juvenile glass squid swimming by. Colossal squids are members of the glass squid family, and so appear transparent to the eye—not that any eye has ever been laid on one in its day-to-day life. However, in the high-definition footage captured by the researchers, the vermillion tentacles and faint blue bioluminescence narrow down the list of potential species considerably.

Hakai Magazine reports that the curiosity and support of the tourists was needed motivational drive to keep the team from flagging in their endless monitoring of the frigid waters below their vessel.

In the epitomization of the phrase anti-climactic, the ‘colossal squid’ was a 12-centimeter-long juvenile, but because the expedition was privately funded, it gave the team immediate impotice to return to the Antarctic waters and search for longer, and at greater depths. Kolossal Expedition leader Matthew Mulrennan was working on the Antarctic tourist boat Ocean Endeavour where 200 tourists shared quarters with him and his team between December 2022 and April 2023.

One wonders if Captain Jack Sparrow has encountered the squid before?