-
Kolossal hopes to film a colossal squid in its natural habitat, the waters around Antarctica.
-
The squid is large, but elusive and difficult to study because it lives thousands of meters underwater.
-
The use of Antarctic tourist boats made searching for the squid much more cost-effective.
Over four trips, tourists on an Antarctic cruise ship watched as researchers lowered a camera into the frigid, frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. They had the same question every day: “Have you found it yet?”
The scientists were looking for the colossal squid, an elusive cephalopod that can weigh up to 500 kilos. Although fishing boats have found a handful of complete and partial specimens, researchers have had difficulty finding one in the wild.
Matthew Mulrennan hopes to change that with Kolossal, the nonprofit organization he founded to film a colossal squid in its natural habitat. The goal is to learn basic information about the sea animal, such as what it hunts and looks like at different life stages.
“I always like to say that it’s an oversized poster kind of thing about how little we know about the ocean and how little we’ve explored it,” he told Business Insider.
In 2022 and 2023, Mulrennan assembled a team of scientists to try to get images of the squid on board Antarctica tourist cruises. Although he estimates the effort cost a total of $500,000, it was much cheaper than renting a research vessel.
The cruise ship can accommodate 200 passengers, each paying more than $6,720. Although they expected lectures from geologists, marine biologists and other experts, they did not necessarily know that there would be a full-fledged research station on board.
The team’s underwater camera captured dozens of Antarctic species, including a squid that resembled a young colossal.
The enigmatic colossal squid
Measuring some 14 meters in length with its tentacles spread out, the colossal squid is nevertheless difficult to spot.
Adults live more than 900 meters deep in the waters around Antarctica, putting them beyond the reach of even the most experienced technical divers. Underwater vehicles can deter them.
Many of the known specimens were found in the stomachs of sperm whales, whose diet consists of 77 percent colossal squid. According to a 2015 study, only twelve complete specimens have been found.
“Not much is known about it because it’s so elusive,” said Myrah Graham, a master’s student at Memorial University’s Marine Institute who accompanied Mulrennan on one of the expeditions.
They are also difficult to preserve for long-term research, and so many basic data about them are not known, including how old they live, details about their reproduction and population size, Graham said.
“The bottom line is, all we have to do is film it, and we can learn a lot from just short interactions,” he said.
Combining science and tourism
Mulrennan first became interested in colossal squids in 2007 while studying abroad at the University of Auckland. Researchers dissected what he called a “monster specimen” caught by a fishing vessel.
Although Mulrennan was not involved in the dissection, he was keen to learn more about the sea creature. In 2015, he set a goal to film the colossal squid within ten years.
Chartering research vessels can cost tens of thousands of dollars per day. Similar expeditions have cost as much as $8 million, Mulrennan said.
Eventually, Mulrennan came up with the idea of boarding Intrepid Travel’s Ocean Endeavor, a cruise ship that was already scheduled to travel to Antarctica.
Once on board, curious cruise-goers stopped by and looked at brittle stars and other deep-sea life captured by an underwater camera. The passengers began calling investigators “squid heads,” Mulrennan said.
“You get this kind of privileged access immediately on board,” Graham said. “One of the comments I got the most was, ‘Oh, I wish I had gone to school for marine biology.’”
To accommodate the cruise passengers’ itineraries to see penguins and seals — what Mulrennan called “air-breathing cuties” — the researchers had to spend the entire night when the ship was in the deep ocean.
Sometimes the passengers complained about the smelly ice fishing bait the scientists used to attract the squid. The researchers had to be flexible when lowering the underwater camera, especially when waves were churning up nearby ice.
At one time, researchers had to take down their entire research station so passengers could use the nearby door for a polar dive.
“You’ve got 150 half-naked guys walking out doing vodka shots at your research station,” Mulrennan said. “It’s like bizarre things that couldn’t happen on a normal ship.”
The future of the colossal squid search
During 58 days at sea, Kolossal’s camera captured more than 80 marine species, including giant volcanic sponges, dragonfish, icefish, Antarctic sunstars and – perhaps – a colossal squid.
“We’re not saying this is the colossal squid, but it isn’t not a colossal squid,” Mulrennan said of footage of a translucent squid the camera captured.
Based on reviews from experts who have seen the footage, it is impossible to say whether the animal is a young colossal squid or an adult glass squid.
Graham said she thinks this shows they are on the right track.
Mulrennan hopes to return to Antarctica next season, just in time for his self-imposed deadline to find the colossal squid in 2025.
“We are approaching a hundred years of our interaction with the species,” Mulrennan said, “and we still know so little about it.”
Read the original article on Business Insider