Squid squad makes waves with baby squid
The head of the AUT Squid Squad, Associate Professor Dr Kat Bolstad, made headlines worldwide recently after verifying the first live footage of a baby colossal squid.
A captivating video of the beautiful baby squid, narrated by Kat and posted on YouTube by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, attracted almost two million views in under two weeks.
Kat has been studying this elusive animal for more than 20 years and she and her Squid Squad team (officially the AUT Lab for Cephalopod Ecology and Systematics - ALCES) are renowned around the world for their expertise. That's why Kat was called upon to verify the footage captured in March by an Ocean Census expedition in the remote South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. She immediately knew it was a colossal squid by the unique hooks along its arms.
“This is honestly one of the most exciting observations we’ve had,” Kat told National Geographic, adding: “We get to introduce the live colossal squid to the world as this beautiful, little, delicate animal, highlighting the magnificence of a lot of deep-sea creatures without some of that monster hype."
As well as National Geographic, Kat and the baby squid featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Smithsonian magazine, Scientific American, NPR, Sky News, BBC, and many more, including extensive NZ coverage. Kat also published an article on The Conversation which has had more than 225,000 views - in English and French.
The timing is perfect as this year is the 100th anniversary of the colossal squid’s identification and formal naming after remains were found in the stomach of a sperm whale in 1925.
Formally called Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the colossal squid is a member of the glass squid family and generally lives in Antarctic waters at depths of more than 1,000 metres. They can grow up to seven metres long and weigh as much as 500kg, making them the world's heaviest known invertebrates.
The colossal squid in question, however, is about 30cm long, indicating it is a juvenile.
“This animal is so beautiful – actually quite stunning,” says Kat, who thinks it looks like a “little glass sculpture”. While it is almost entirely transparent in the footage, the colour cells (chromatophores) visible mean that it can probably switch to being opaque.
"It's so exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist," says Kat.
This is not the first time Kat has hit the multi-million mark. A documentary made by the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation NHK several years ago, which prominently featured Kat, was recently made available on National Geographic's Animals YouTube channel and has had more than two million views in a matter of months.
And, speaking of monster hype, earlier this year another Squid Squad member, senior lecturer Dr Heather Braid, featured on YouTuber Groovy Gavin's channel about whether the kraken might actually exist and that story has amassed more than 1.6 million views so far.
Useful links
- Schmidt Ocean Institute footage
- NHK documentary
- See Groovy Gavin's story here: The Kraken Might Actually Exist...