In brief
The Antarctic gonate squid has been seen alive for the first time by researchers on an expedition, offering new insights into deep-sea life.
On Christmas Day 2024, during an expedition in the Southern Ocean, researchers aboard the R/V Falkor (Too) captured the first-ever live footage of the elusive Antarctic gonate squid, known scientifically as Gonatus antarcticus. Before this groundbreaking sighting, the rare deep-sea cephalopod was only known to scientists through limited encounters, such as those found in fishing nets or consumed by seabirds.The team, under the auspices of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, had initially planned to deploy their remotely operated vehicle, SuBastian, in the Powell Basin. However, shifting ice forced them to explore the outer regions instead. While descending to depths of 7,000 feet, they detected a shadow on the live feed that turned out to be a three-foot-long gonate squid, releasing a mesmerizing cloud of green ink.Andrew Thurber, a deep-sea researcher from the University of California, Santa Barbara, expressed his excitement about the encounter, stating, “It was a beautiful squid. You see beauty all the time in the deep ocean, and this was just one classic example of it.” The footage, which captured the squid's striking red coloration and distinctive white spots, could provide vital information about the species' behavior and ecology in extreme ocean environments.Linsey Sala, a museum scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who was not part of the expedition, highlighted the significance of such discoveries, noting that videos like this can greatly enhance understanding of the life forms residing at great depths. She further remarked that unidentified specimens may exist in collections worldwide, and this footage could provide a key to their identification and understanding.This observation opens exciting new avenues for marine biology, as it reveals the deep-sea's hidden wonders and the mysteries of rarely seen species like the Antarctic gonate squid.
