Kraken! Scientists Capture First Giant Squid Footage

And Discovery is airing tape this month
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 7, 2013 12:46 PM CST
Kraken! Scientists Capture First Giant Squid Footage
In this Sept. 18, 2009 photo, a senior researcher with Cuba's Institute of Oceanology looks at a giant squid at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla.   (AP Photo/Christine Armario)

Discovery is about to release the Kraken: Until now, the giant squid had never been caught on video in its natural habitat. But Japan's National Science Museum has managed to capture the footage, and it's headed for the small screen on the country's public television. Then, on Jan. 27, the Discovery Channel will unveil the video of the creature "with razor-toothed suckers and eyes the size of dinner plates." That's not totally an exaggeration.

The giant squid is believed to have inspired centuries of legends among sailors. The squid in question is about 10 feet long—though scientists say it would have been 26 feet long had it not been missing two arms—and was taped some 2,000 feet underwater in the north Pacific. It took experts some 400 hours squeezed into a submersible to get the footage, AFP reports. "It was shining and so beautiful," says a researcher of the silvery, black-eyed squid. "I was so thrilled when I saw it firsthand." (More Discovery Channel stories.)

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