Scientists Surprised To Find Rare Deep-Sea Bigfin Squid
People spend a lot of time exploring the ocean, yet it still has a way of surprising us on a regular basis. That was seen recently with a rare sighting of a bigfin squid.
Although we know that this rare cephalopod lives in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, it doesn’t make a frequent appearance. Fortunately, the remotely operated sub from Schmidt Ocean Institute was able to capture a video.
The sub was in the area of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, looking near the “Lost City hydrothermal vent field.” They were not looking for the squid at the time. They were trying to take biological samples from the area.
During the 501st dive of the expedition, they spotted the bigfin squid and live-streamed it on YouTube. They were actually doing the live stream at the time, and you can spot the squid at nine hours, 33 minutes, and 40 seconds.
They were at an incredible depth of more than 6,300 feet below sea level when they spotted the unusual creature. The sea is black at that location, but the lights captured the pink body with purple eyes clearly.
You can hear the comments of the researchers, calling the animal beautiful and even alien looking.
Bigfin squid (a group of cephalopods in genus Magnapinna) are a rare sight – there have only been around 20 recorded encounters w/ them in the 2 decades they've been known to science. This was during Dive 501 of #LostCityVents expedition.
1/3 pic.twitter.com/qDX07AQvUA— Schmidt Ocean (@SchmidtOcean) April 4, 2023
It is not uncommon for one of these squids to be almost 20 feet long. The length is not in the body. It is in the arms and tentacles that stream from it.
Schmidt Ocean reached out in a tweet to say that they aren’t sure how the squids use their arms and tentacles. They do know that there are microscopic suckers on the arms and tentacles, and they think they drag the seafloor to trap prey.
There is still a lot that needs to be learned about these unusual creatures. It is known that they belong to the genus Magnapinna, with members in the Atlantic and Pacific. It attests to their diversity and the possibility they may exist in many of the world’s seas.
Scan to 9 hours, 33 minutes, and 40 seconds to see the squid in this video:
