Giant Bigfin Squid Filmed Walking Around on Its 13-Foot-Long Tentacles
Stunning underwater footage shows a rarely-seen bigfin squid “walking” on its unbelievable 13-foot-long tentacles deep in the ocean.
A team of scientists from Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre and Inkfish captured the bigfin squid on camera at the bottom of the Tonga Trench in the South Pacific Ocean as part of the ongoing Tonga Trench Expedition 2024.
In the footage, the strange and elusive bigfin squid — which is the deepest-dwelling species of squid known to science — is seen moving slowly along the oceanic trench with its 13-foot-long tentacles.
The team captured the video of the otherworldly creature at a depth of 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) using a deep-sea lander equipped with a camera and a piece of fish as bait.
The footage marks the first recorded sighting of the bigfin squid in the Tonga Trench, a remarkable achievement considering there have only been around a dozen recorded encounters with this rarely-seen creature.
A Lucky Encounter
According to Live Science, the researchers says that they spotted the elusive bigfin squid by chance while exploring the Tonga Trench (the second-deepest oceanic trench in the world after the Mariana Trench) and the sighting of this unusual creature was a lucky encounter.
“We always hope to see this type of animal,” Alan Jamieson, a professor and deep-sea scientist at the University of Western Australia who collected the footage, tells Live Science in an email. “[Bigfin squid] are not something you would actively go looking for, they are a species that relies on us coming across them by accident.”
Jaimeson says that most recorded bigfin squid sightings are “serendipitous filming from oil and gas activities.”
Bigfin squid can survive at depths of more than 20,000 feet and they are known for their astonishingly long tentacles, which can extend up to 26 feet in length.
The researchers say that the creature in the footage didn’t seem to have such long tentacles as the adult bigfin has. Therefore, it must have been a young bigfin squid.
The reason behind the evolution of the bigfin squid’s extraordinarily long, spindly tentacles is still unknown, although it’s likely connected to feeding.
In the footage, the creature is seen moving slowly along the seafloor before abruptly halting and flexing the large fins on its body. While it appears as if the squid is tugging on something out of view, it’s more likely trying to lift its sticky arms off the seafloor. According to the researchers, the squid was likely feeding or attempting to feed in the footage.
Image credits: All photos by Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre and Inkfish.
