A juvenile colossal squid is filmed alive in its deep-sea habitat
Footage captured in March and announced in April 2025 provides a rare view of a little-seen ocean animal.
News report
A research team filmed a juvenile colossal squid alive in its natural environment on March 9, 2025, near the South Sandwich Islands. Schmidt Ocean Institute announced the confirmed footage on April 15, describing it as the first such observation of the species in its habitat.
The animal was about 30 centimeters long and was recorded at a depth of 600 meters by the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian. The vehicle was working from the research vessel Falkor (too) during an expedition in the South Atlantic.
The species, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, had been formally described a century earlier. Previous scientific knowledge drew heavily on specimens and remains rather than observations of living animals at depth. The new footage adds a different kind of evidence about a juvenile’s appearance and behavior.
Auckland University of Technology reported that squid specialist Kat Bolstad was asked to help verify the identification. That expert checking is important when a rarely seen animal is recognized from video, especially at an early life stage.
The observation does not establish how common colossal squid are or resolve their full life history. A single encounter cannot provide a population estimate. Its significance is more direct: researchers obtained and checked a living view of an animal that had largely remained outside direct observation, adding material that can guide future deep-sea study.
