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https://theconversation.com/a-century-after-its-discovery-scientists-capture-first-confirmed-footage-of-a-colossal-squid-in-the-deep-254584>
"The colossal squid was first described in 1925 based on specimens from the
stomach of a commercially hunted sperm whale. A century later, an international
voyage captured the first confirmed video of this species in its natural
habitat – a 30-centimetre juvenile, at a depth of 600 metres near the South
Sandwich Islands.
Colossal squid can grow up to seven metres and weigh as much as 500 kilograms,
making them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet. But little is known about
their life cycle.
The footage of a young colossal squid in the water column was a serendipitous
sighting, as many deep-sea squid observations are.
It was seen during the live “divestream” feed of a remotely operated vehicle
during the Schmidt Ocean Institute and Ocean Census partner expedition
searching for new deep-sea species and habitats in the far south Atlantic,
mostly focusing on the seafloor.
Those tuned into the stream had the remarkable experience of seeing a live
colossal squid in its deep-sea home, although its identity was not confirmed
until the high-definition footage could be reviewed later.
Predators such as whales and seabirds are still one of our best sources of
information about the colossal squid (
Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) because
they are much better at finding it than we are.
This partially explains why we have only just filmed this species in its
natural habitat. Not only do these animals live in an enormous, dark and
three-dimensional environment, they are also probably actively avoiding us.
Most of our deep-sea exploration equipment is large, noisy and uses bright
lights if we are trying to film animals. But the colossal squid can detect and
avoid diving sperm whales, which probably produce a strong light signal as they
swim down and disturb bioluminescent animals.
The squid best able to avoid such predators have been passing on their genes
for millions of years. This leaves us with a current population of visually
acute, likely light-avoiding animals, well capable of detecting a light signal
from many metres away."
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
