Scientists capture giant squid on camera

Whales help out researchers
The new photos — taken with strobe lights at 30-second intervals — also shed some new light on the animal’s behavior.

“We think it is a much more active predator than was previously thought,” Kubodera said Wednesday.

“It had previously been seen as more lethargic, and not as strong.”

In the pictures, the squid’s tentacles can be seen stretching out toward the bait, grasping it and pulling away in a ball.

Royal Society via Reuters This photo, taken by Japanese scientists in the Pacific Ocean, shows a live giant squid tangled up in a line that extends out from the left side of the frame.

It is then seen struggling to get itself free of the jig attached to the line under the remote-controlled camera. The struggle took place at a depth of between 2,000-3,000 feet.

Kudodera said catching the squid on film was the result of 10 years of sleuthing.

He added that he had some help — from a population of sperm whales.

“We knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived,” he said. “So we used them to lead us to the squid.”

Kudodera and his team found the squid about 10 miles off the remote island of Chichijima, which is about 600 miles southeast of Tokyo. They had been conducting expeditions in the area for about three years before they actually succeeded in making their first contact at 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 20 last year.

Itsuo Inouye / AP "We were very lucky," says Tsunemi Kubodera, whose team captured the giant squid. Seen behind him at the National Science Museum in Tokyo, Japan, is another giant squid his team captured in 1996 in the Japan Sea.

“We were very lucky,” he said. “A lot of research went into it, but still, others have tried and not succeeded.”

New Zealand’s leading authority on the giant squid, marine biologist Steve O’Shea, praised the Japanese team’s feat.

“Through sheer ... determination the guy has gone on and done it,” said O’Shea, chief marine scientist at the Auckland University of Technology, who is not linked to the Japanese research.

O’Shea said he hopes to capture juvenile giant squid and grow them in captivity. He captured 17 of them five years ago but they died.

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