At a depth of 2,000 metres, this mysterious creature became the first of its kind to be captured on camera

Captured on film. Yes, for the very first time, a living Antarctic Gonate squid has been filmed in the depths of the ocean.

It was the end of December 2024, on Wednesday the 25th to be exact, when a team of scientists managed to capture images of the creature in the Southern Ocean.

In the midnight zone

The Antarctic Gonate squid (Gonatus antarcticus) was identified at no less than 2,152 metres deep, a world first, according to the magazine National Geographic, which specified that the discovery took place in the "midnight zone", an area deprived of light located between 1,000 and 4,000 metres beneath the surface of the icy waters. The collected footage is rare and valuable, as the only specimens observed until now were all already dead. It was a remote operated vehicle (ROV), deployed by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, that managed to capture this rare moment.

The first video

The squid measures nearly 90 centimetres and is recognisable thanks to its reddish colour.

“This is, to my knowledge, the very first video of this animal alive in the world,” highlighted Kat Bolstad, head of the Cephalopod Ecology and Systematics Laboratory at Auckland University of Technology, as reported to the media outlet Demotivateur.

Alex Hayward, lecturer at the University of Exeter, pointed out another impressive feature: the specimen in question had, at the end of its tentacles, a large hook. “The impressive hooks on the tentacles are probably used to catch and subdue prey during ambush attacks.” 

A major discovery for the scientific community.

(Raphaël Liset – Source: Demotivateur – Illustration: ©Unsplash)