The team from the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre and lead scientist Heather Stewart, from Kelpie Geosciences UK and a UWA partner, were in the process of recovering an underwater camera deployed at a depth of more than 5 kilometres in the area known as the Samoan Passage of the Pacific Ocean.

During the recovery of the camera when it was at a depth of 1 km, the squid named Dana (of the species Taningia danae) attacked the camera by fully embracing it.

An extremely rare deep-sea squid has been captured on camera by scientists from the University of Western Australia. 🦑

The “deep-sea hooked squid” is renowned for having glowing “photophores” on the end of two of its arms, which can produce bright flashes to startle its prey.… pic.twitter.com/mCxNp5hIV6

— 9News Perth (@9NewsPerth) May 16, 2024

When the scientists saw the video, they realised they had captured an animal that rarely occurs in its natural habitat.

“As we were looking at the video, we realised we had captured something very rare,” Stewart said.

The giant deep-sea squid is one of the largest squid and is known for its two large light-bearing limbs. These limbs produce bright bioluminescent flashes to scare and disorient their prey when hunting. It is the largest known light-bearing animal in the world.

“The squid, which was about 75 cm long, came down to our camera assuming it was prey and tried to scare it away with huge bioluminescent lights,” said the associate professor. “It then wrapped its tentacles around one of the cameras, which captured the encounter in even greater detail. I think we were very lucky to see it,” Stewart added.