Scientist Explains How She Captured Rare Footage of a Giant Squid

[Narrator] From 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

to the tales of the mythical Kraken,

the giant squid has long loomed large

in the popular imagination.

But for actual science, the creature has eluded us.

We only really know about it from specimens

that have washed ashore or have been caught in nets.

Until now.

For the second time ever

and for the first time in U.S. waters,

researchers have captured a giant squid on camera.

So, how do they do it?

And what does this mean for our understanding

of this mysterious creature?

To find out, we are speaking to one

of the expedition's leaders, Dr. Edith Widder.

She's also the one responsible

for developing the technology that made this all possible.

So this is obviously a very elusive creature.

I was wondering if you could walk us through

what exactly science does know so far about this animal

that has been very difficult to actually spot in the wild?

So for the longest time, what we knew about giant squid

was based on the dead specimens that floated to the surface.

But seeing on in its natural habitat

became what was called the holy grail

of natural history cinematography.

And I had been saying for some time

that I think we need to try exploring the deep ocean

in a different way.

The primary way we know about life in the ocean

is we drag nets behind ships.

And I defy you to name any other branch of science

that still depends on hundreds of year old technology.

It's an axiom among marine scientists

that nets only capture the slow, the stupid, and the greedy.

And so how much are we missing?

And if we go down with submersibles

and remote operated vehicles they have really bright lights

and sometimes very noisy thrusters

and any sensible animal is gonna get out of the way.

And so I wanted a different way to explore

and started trying to develop a camera system

that could see without being seen.

And so I developed this optical lure

that we call the electronic jelly fish or e-jelly

that imitates certain bioluminescent displays

that I thought might be attractive to large predators.

And sure enough, it was.

Can you tell us more about the e-jelly?

What kind of organism is it mimicking

and how is it doing so?

[Edith] It's a bunch of blue LEDs

that are embedded in epoxy.

And they're imitating the display of a jelly fish

that when it is caught in the clutches of a predator

it produces this pinwheel of light

that is meant as a scream for help.

And it's called a bioluminescent burglar alarm

because it functions very much like

the burglar alarm on your car.

The blaring horn and flashing lights

are meant to attract attention, hopefully the police,

and cause the burglar to run away

because he doesn't want to get caught.

Well the same thing is true for a lot of animals

in the ocean that can make light.

That if they're caught in the clutches of a predator

they may use every light organ they've got

in the flashiest way possible, pun intended,

to attract the attention of a larger predator.

How do we now understand the future

better than we used to?

[Edith] It's very clear that this is an active

visual predator.

You see this giant squid surfing along the side

the camera and the electronic jelly fish.

It's tracking exactly what the camera is doing.

So it's clearly a visual predator.

It watches it for a while and then comes in for the attack.

Obviously this would be an exciting discovery,

somewhat memorable.

What was it like out there on the high seas?

It was actually probably the most unusual day at sea

I've ever had.

I was doing this project in collaboration with

Nathan Robinson.

The video is collected over a 24 to 30 hour period

by the camera system.

And we don't know what we've got until we collect the camera

and download it.

It takes many hours to download the data.

And then many more hours to go through it.

And Nate was going through it in the lab

he came in and he didn't even say anything.

His eyes were just about popping out of his head.

I knew it was something important

and I came running into the lab and there it was.

This giant squid coming out of the bloom

attacking the e-jelly.

And it was incredible.

And then others from around the ship came running around

to see it and we wanted to confirm

before we shared it with the world

that it really was a giant squid.

And so we wanted to connect with the Smithsonian

but the internet was down

'cause we were in the middle of a squall.

And as we were sill all around the computer

watching this loop over and over again

the ship got hit by lightning

which has never happened to me

in all my years of going to sea.

Ran out onto the fantail and there was this plume

of yellow and brown smoke

and bits of antenna on the deck.

It had hit the antenna on the ship.

We all thought at the same moment,

oh my god what about the computer?

Because we hadn't backed up the video yet,

we'd just gotten it.

And what a disaster that would've been.

But we ran in and our laptop that this was on was okay.

Some of the other computers actually did get zapped.

And then even as we were still kind of processing

all of this, still didn't have internet,

the captain comes down and tells us

that there's a water spout forming off of our port bow.

And so it really felt like Poseidon

was trying to protect his secrets.

But eventually we did get the internet back up

and we were able to send the video to Mike Vecchione

at the Smithsonian and he was able to confirm

that yes, in all likelihood as much as he was willing

to put his reputation on the line,

it was a giant squid.

It was probably a juvenile.

With the mantle and the arms it was probably

about 12 feet long.

If the tentacles were fully extended

it would be even longer than that.

With a typical adult, as far as we know

they can get as tall as a four story building.

It sounds like scene out of

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

You've got a giant cephalopod and angry seas

all coming together in some high drama.

Yeah I think Jules Verne would've approved.

So up until this point

why has it been that we haven't really seen

much of these giant squid?

Especially alive out in the wild?

We've actually explored very little of

what is the largest habitat on the planet,

the open ocean.

Mostly we know about what lives there

by dragging nets.

But visits with submersibles and remote operated vehicles

are few and far between.

And when you think in terms of the volume

that we're talking about,

this is an enormous volume.

More than 99.9% of the biosphere

the living space on the planet is in the water.

And we've just barely, barely glimpsed the life down there.

And maybe a creature like the giant squid

this science fiction creature which is a head

with arms and tentacles whipping out of it

and a beak that can rip flesh

and eyes the size of a dinner plate

and three hearts that can pump blue blood.

I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.

And if that would excite the public's interest

which it seems to have done,

then that's awesome.

Thank you for chatting with us today.

We appreciate it.

I was glad to do it.