THAR SHE BLOWS

Giant Squid Caught on Camera for First Time in U.S. Waters

Scientists crowded around a desk to watch the 25-second clip over and over again.

The elusive deep sea giant squid was spotted for the second time ever by scientists at the Ocean Research and Conservation Association. In 2012, the first giant squid was sighted, using a red-light camera called Medusa, which was created for the occasion. Dr. Edie Widder, of the Ocean Research Association, hypothesized that the loud vehicles and submarines researchers were using to descend into the deep were scaring the squid away. Enter Medusa, a camera that has a mile-long plastic line that ends with a ring of LED lights that look like jellyfish, designed to lure a curious squid towards it.

On the Medusa’s latest journey, the squid was spotted just 20 hours into the recording. “My heart felt like exploding,” Dr. Robinson, director of the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas, told the New York Times. The 10-foot-long squid reached its tentacles over to the Medusa, realized it wasn’t a jellyfish, and left. The scientists crowded around a desk to watch the 25-second clip over and over again. It was the first giant squid sighting in the United States and only the second ever expedition to film a giant squid in its natural habitat.