Japanese divers Yosuke Tanaka and his wife Miki have managed a world-first by capturing footage of a giant squid swimming at the surface.
However, that’s not all. What makes the footage truly astounding is that the live squid is happily swimming in the ocean with divers in the water in close proximity.
While this is not the first time footage of giant squid has been captured, almost all other images of the creature have been taken from submersibles deep in the ocean, or after their carcasses have washed up on the beach. Footage of a live squid swimming near the surface is unheard of.
The creature in the footage is enormous, with estimates that the length of its mantle is around 2.5m/8ft, which would make the creature’s total length around 6m-7m/~20-25ft long. Sadly by all accounts, the squid in the video is sick, as evidenced by the flacking skin on its mantle and the sluggish, slow movement of its tentacles.
Commenting on what could have been a risky encounter swimming so close to the tentacles, Tanaka stated:
“I could see its tentacles moving. I thought it would be dangerous to be grabbed hard by them and taken off somewhere.”
You can check out the footage of the Giant squid below.
