A giant squid is capturing the imaginations of scientists in Japan. Squids are one of the ocean's most mysterious creatures. Little is known about how they live but these still photos taken from the world's first moving images of a giant squid show the creature in its natural habitat hundreds of meters under the ocean.
The video was shot last July near Japan's Ogasawara islands, 620 miles south of Tokyo. It shows a three-meter-long cephalopod. Zoologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science Tsunemi Kubodera led the 40-day expedition.
[Tsunemi Kubodera, Zoologist]:
"Many people have tried to capture an image of a giant squid alive in its natural habit, whether that's researchers or film crews. But they all failed. These are the first ever images of a real live giant squid."
Kubodera took the first still photographs of a living giant squid in 2005, and landed another squid on a baited line in 2006.
[Tsunemi Kubodera, Zoologist]:
"I've seen a lot of giant squid specimens in my time, but mainly those hauled out of the ocean. This was the first time for me to see with my own eyes a giant squid swimming in its deep sea habitat. It was stunning, I couldn't have dreamed that it would be so beautiful. It was such a wonderful creature."
He says at about 630 meters down they released a meter-long diamond squid as bait. They then started filming, following the squid to around 900 meters.
The Discovery Channel will air the footage on January 27.
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