Giant Squid: Filming the Impossible - Natural World Special Natural World

The deep ocean. The final frontier.

It's the largest wilderness on our planet

and a place we've only just begun to explore.

The deeper we go, the more astonishing the life forms we find.

But there is one legendary monster of the deep

that has, so far, remained hidden from our cameras...

..the giant squid.

For centuries, they've been creatures of myth and mystery.

Sailors have told stories of huge squid,

18 metres long,

and so powerful, they could drag whole ships into the inky depths

or wage war with whales,

in a true clash of the titans.

They are one of the Earth's last great enigmas.

But off the east coast of Japan,

an international team of scientists and film-makers

are hoping to change all that.

Using the most advanced submersibles,

they hope to find and film a living giant squid,

1,000 metres under the surface of the sea.

They have recruited the best minds

from many different fields of expertise

to try and pull off something thought, by most, to be impossible.

And though they don't yet know it,

their mission will be more successful

than they could ever have imagined.

-Oh, my God!

-Yes!

-Oh, my God!

Japan's Ogasawara Islands,

1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo.

These volcanic, subtropical islands are the Galapagos of the Orient,

home to unique plants and animals.

It's a World Heritage Site

and the surrounding seas are as pristine as any, anywhere.

Summer 2012.

These waters are the destination

for one of the most ambitious expeditions ever undertaken -

to dive to the greatest depth possible

to observe and film the giant squid.

150 years ago,

the immense carcass of a giant squid was brought ashore.

Scientists were amazed to discover

that this mythical creature actually existed.

Soon after, other specimens were recovered,

the largest of them measuring 18 metres.

Most of their length is taken up

by two exceptionally long tentacles

that extended beyond its eight arms.

Such specimens intensified the scientists' desire to see one alive.

For marine biologists and wildlife film-makers,

filming one of these remarkable animals became a kind of holy grail.

Now, after more than a decade of research and collaboration,

50 top scientists, engineers, operators and support staff,

from 11 countries,

have joined together for this deep-sea adventure.

Their Deep Rover submersible has an acrylic pressure hull

that provides an almost uninterrupted view

and can take them a kilometre down.

It's equipped with a camera that has taken two years to perfect.

Down in the darkness, it needs to be

several hundred times more sensitive than normal HD cameras.

A second state-of-the-art submersible, Triton, is also here.

The deep-sea equipment is ready to go.

OK, this is a record of where we've found parts of giant squid.

In the command centre,

the scientists make final preparations for the dives.

And were these all around 660 metres...?

Yes, those...but, usually...

Dr Tsunemi Kubodera,

from Japan's National Museum For Nature And Science,

heads the team.

He is a world expert on the giant squid,

and this expedition is the culmination of a lifetime's work.

TRANSLATION: We know nothing about where or how it lives -

a gigantic creature surrounded in mystery,

but that's the attraction for me.

Dr Kubodera is not alone in his fascination

for these elusive giants.

Dr Steve O'Shea is from New Zealand.

He has already been on five expeditions

and was the first scientist to closely examine a baby giant squid.

He's also very optimistic.

We've got a really good chance of capturing that image,

of the giant squid live on film.

American, Dr Edith Widder, is a world expert on bioluminescence.

She plans to use this almost magical living glow

to attract a giant squid.

She, too, is confident that they're on the right trail.

I can't imagine that there are that many giant squid sightings

in this one little area

and I think it improves our chances enormously.

The team is concentrating their search in an area of ocean

where parts of giant squid carcasses have occasionally been found.

The expedition reaches its destination,

east of Ogasawara's Chichijima Island.

Dr Kubodera will make the first exploratory dive.

-1,000? Are you sure?

-Positive.

Although he has been studying squid for 40 years,

this is the first time he's been in a submersible.

-Are you OK?

-Yeah.

-You can hold on the corner here.

-OK.

He'll be descending into an alien world.

That's hatch secure, ready to move...

'OK, Roger, starting winch now.'

Triton weighs eight tons.

It needs carefully coordinated teamwork to launch it safely.

That's the safety brief complete, hatch secure.

Life support's OK and we're ready to dive.

Trying venting now.

'Copy that. Vent's open now.'

OK, let's go.

-Going down!

-OK.

Air is released from the ballast tank

and Triton gently sinks below the waves.

It's the beginning of an eight-hour adventure into the unknown.

Surface, surface, Triton depth 200 metres,

life support OK. Over.

Now, they are entering a strange part of the sea,

between 200 and 1,000 metres,

known to marine biologists as the Twilight Zone.

To the human eye, it's totally dark,

but animals living here have their own ways of seeing.

At these depths, beyond the reach of the sun,

most creatures generate their own light.

Bioluminescence.

A flash of light could frighten away an enemy, reassure an ally,

or tempt prey closer.

We don't yet understand these complex light signals,

but they must be crucial

for the animals struggling to survive down here.

500 metres down.

Here, the water pressure would crush a human swimmer.

Oh, oh!

But there is life.

A strange jellyfish comes into view.

There's something inside it.

Oh, wow, it's alive!

This live fish is a meal for later.

Food is scarce at these depths,

so animals catch things when they can and digest them slowly.

It's a challenging place to live.

Oh!

Oh, shark!

THEY CONFER

The longfin mako shark is a deep-sea specialist.

It's two metres long, with enormous eyes.

Eyes that can detect the faintest traces of light

and help the shark to find food.

It finds any glow intriguing

and the submersible, with its array of lights, seems to fascinate it.

Finding a predator on this first dive convinces Dr Kubodera

that they're in a promising spot.

-How was it?

-Oh, we saw...

-some bioluminescence.

-Bioluminescence?

-They can never really get that. Isn't that beautiful?

-Yeah.

-Was it shallow or deep?

-It's 400 metres.

They're sure that giant squid

are living somewhere below them in the Twilight Zone,

but finding and filming them is a different matter.

Time for Dr Widder's masterpiece.

Come on, Eddie, please.

She hopes her electrically luminescent jellyfish

will trick a giant squid into revealing itself.

She rigs it, like a piece of bait,

in front of an unmanned camera, called Medusa,

which can remain underwater,

recording continuously, for up to 30 hours.

Special red light will help make it less threatening

to creatures in the deep.

The Medusa is very stealthy, because it's quiet,

there's no thrusters on it

and it uses red light that should be invisible to the animals

and so, it's as unobtrusive as we can make it.

Medusa will be set adrift on a 700-metre tether,

with a marker float.

For a day and a night,

it will be the team's secret eye in the Twilight Zone.

As it sinks, Dr Widder's electric jellyfish

begins to emit flashing blue lights.

It was modelled on this Atolla jellyfish.

It strobes in a circular sequence, like a neon sign...

..a pattern that's thought to attract predatory squid.

This footage was shot when Dr Widder tested her electric jellyfish

off the coast of California.

A deep-sea squid, over a metre long, investigates and attacks.

Giant squid might well hunt in the same way.

The dream would be to see a giant squid come in and attack this thing.

And I just hope it doesn't like it too much and try to take it away.

Will this trick of light attract a giant squid?

It'll be at least 30 hours before Dr Widder and the team find out.

Evidence that the Ogasawaras might be a giant squid hotspot

has been building since 2002.

The first clues came from another deep-sea giant -

a sperm whale.

Up to 18 metres long, these huge whales dive to exceptional depths,

remaining below for over an hour.

Proof that they encounter giant squid here

was discovered on a sperm whale when it surfaced after a dive.

Dr Kubodera recognised the pattern of circular scars under its eye,

almost certainly made by the suckers on the tentacle of a giant squid.

He obtained an even more astonishing photograph.

It showed a rope-like object wrapped around a whale's head.

A tentacle as long as this must have belonged to a giant squid.

These clues suggested that giant battles between squids and whales

were taking place in the deep.

And they encouraged Dr Kubodera

to look more closely in the seas around the Ogasawaras.

He teamed up with deep-sea fishermen in the area,

who catch swordfish using very long lines.

He attached a stills camera to the end of a fishing line,

hoping to get a picture of the giant squid.

Over and over again,

he lowered his camera to a depth of several hundred metres...

and waited.

In 2004, he was hauling up his camera as usual.

TRANSLATION: There's something white.

Here it comes. It's a giant squid tentacle!

This tentacle measured a whopping six metres.

TRANSLATION: It's still alive, it's still sticky!

Look at the suckers!

I wonder if it's all right to touch it.

Its enormous owner must have been swimming below the boat

only a short while earlier.

But had it recorded anything?

ALL: Oh!

EXCITED CHATTER

These are the actual photographs.

A sequence of stills of the giant,

just before it lost its tentacle.

Over the next eight years, he braved bad weather and stormy seas.

But in spite of improvements to his camera,

there were no further breakthroughs.

He was baffled.

But over the years,

other reported finds of the remains of giant squid revealed a pattern.

They all came from the east side of Chichijima Island

and were mostly hauled up from the same depth - 600 metres.

The habitat of the giant squid was being narrowed down.

With Medusa and its electric jellyfish in place,

Dr Steve O'Shea now unwraps his approach to the problem.

He plans to lure a giant squid into view

with what he hopes will be an irresistibly attractive smell.

He's using a piece of giant squid

that was picked up on a beach in New Zealand,

and then frozen for preservation.

Although it's a valuable specimen,

Dr O'Shea is going to destroy it by sticking it in a blender.

The resultant squid juice should contain a very special ingredient.

We're expecting there to be a chemical in there,

you might like to call it a pheromone,

we're just going to call it the chemical at this point in time,

that we're going to squirt into the water

and, hopefully, we're going to attract squid to the submersible.

So instead of seeing a squid just swim on past,

we want it to come straight to us and play with us, fall in love with us,

love potion number nine, right there.

It's a giant con trick

to make a squid believe that Triton is a member of the opposite sex.

Once the massive syringe is attached to the front of the sub,

they're ready to give it a go.

Ooh, yeah! Oh, yeah, oh, yeah!

They'll descend to 600 metres before releasing the first dose.

Surface, surface, this is Triton.

We're at 500 metres,

now descending to 600.

This is giant squid territory and we're in here, we're looking out,

I want to know what's out there looking in,

we're lit up like a Christmas tree right now.

So we'll try it here and let's just see what's out there.

Triton's arm will depress the plunger in the syringe.

The pilot needs a very steady hand.

But will it work at all at these depths?

Ooh...

Oh, yes, there she goes.

Oh, beautiful! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Look at that. Another beautiful cloud of ground-up squid

and any second now, when we least expect it,

something is going to lunge out of this blue and attack us.

The squid potion slowly disperses into the deep sea,

carrying its chemical message with it.

30 minutes pass.

It's just... patience.

-Squid, squid!

-Squid!

-Look, isn't it beautiful, little fella.

Hello, squidy! Come on, baby.

Oh, yes. Yes, please, please, please.

What are we looking at?

Oh, baby, please.

You see the squid? Wait, wait, wait. Where is it? Is it...?

There's a squid. Squid, right there.

Squid! Squid! Squid! Squid! Baby, come to us!

Oh, into the camera!

Oh, squid! Another squid! Look at this, look at this. Oh!

Look at it, right in front, little wee fellow.

-It came and swam into the juice.

-Yeah.

They aren't giants,

but this suggests that many species of squid have a keen sense of smell.

This is very nice.

THEY CONFER

So, perhaps it's just a matter of time.

We're just waiting for the big one to come, sniff us out in the water

and then, come and say hello, be mister friendly.

Now, that is how I'd love to see giant squid hovering in the water.

OK? Arm's going up, but then, the arm is going down.

It's been a great start.

Whoa! This is...oh!

The following day, Medusa, with the unmanned camera,

is brought back to the surface.

Everything's still in order.

This is Medusa's heart, the camera's hard drive,

but what does it hold?

Has the electric jellyfish worked its magic?

Oh, oh! What is that?

This is not a squid tentacle.

It's a siphonophore, a type of colonial jellyfish.

But then...

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God! Are you kidding me?

It's a huge arm.

What's...what's happened?

-OK, so...

-This is a jellyfish or something.

Oh, it's coming!

HE LAUGHS

-OK!

-OK.

So it's good?

Oh, it must be, it must be!

You're not kidding me?

No, no, it must be a giant squid.

Because there are so many suckers

and very long tentacles...long arms,

-so...it's amazing.

-You've done it.

This is the first-ever moving image of a giant squid

in its natural environment.

-I want more!

-Is there more?

-Yeah, we need another shot.

ALL: Oh!

HE LAUGHS

Medusa's alluring glow has succeeded

beyond everyone's hopes.

Over three underwater sessions,

it captures five different images of the giant squid,

all between a depth of 600 and 800 metres.

And it saves the best for last.

-Oh!

-Look at that!

-Oh, bang!

-Oh, my God!

THEY LAUGH

We could put that on loop. Put it on loop, so we can...

-It's coming in.

-That's how the squid would normally...

-It also uses all tentacles, all arms when they attack larger prey.

-Yeah.

-Well, he thinks that Medusa is...

-Medusa is the prey.

-Yeah.

It attacks with arms held closely together

to lessen the resistance of the water.

The star-shaped area, between the arms, is its mouth.

A giant squid has been caught in the act of hunting.

-That's wonderful.

-Wonderful!

These remarkable pictures make the team more determined than ever

to see a giant squid with their own eyes.

I love seeing the footage on the Medusa, it's amazing,

but I really want to see it first hand and I know you do as well.

Oh, of course!

I just want to watch giant squid by my eyes from submersible.

That is...just I want it, now.

Time is not on their side.

They still need a fail-safe way

to tempt a giant squid in front of their submersible.

Dr Kubodera watches the Medusa image over and over again,

noting, in particular, the direction from which the giant squid appears.

It comes from below, at a particular angle,

with its eye focussed on the target.

This confirms his hunch that it would appear in that way.

The giant squid's eye is bigger than a football.

It's not just one of the largest eyes of any living creature,

but also the most highly developed.

The most sensitive cells on its retina

are concentrated in the lower area.

That means the giant squid's eyesight is most acute

when it's looking upwards.

It probably searches for the silhouette of its prey from below

and then, attacks from out of the darkness.

The image captured by Medusa confirms this.

If Dr Kubodera did the same thing,

in front of the submersible,

would they be able to see the giant squid's approach?

This is the finale to Dr Kubodera's decade-long quest.

TRANSLATION: We'll take this large diamondback squid and use it as bait.

Maybe we can lure in a giant squid, that's the plan.

Dr Kubodera thinks this species of deep-sea squid, the diamondback,

is the giant squid's favourite food.

They'll tether an extra-large one, five metres from the submersible.

They make tiny adjustments

so that the lure's speed and posture mimics natural prey.

TRANSLATION: I hope it will spot the squid's silhouette from below

and recognises it as food.

Then, maybe it will come for it.

They've also attached a blinking LED to help attract the squid.

The white light is turned off

and the red light is turned on.

They're plunged into darkness.

Only the blinking LED is visible to the human eye.

This will be the ultimate test of the high-sensitivity HD camera.

With the cabin lights off,

the sub is scarcely visible in the Twilight Zone.

But there's a hitch.

The current becomes unexpectedly strong

and the diamondback bait drifts too close to the submersible.

TRANSLATION: It's too close, we have to keep a distance.

SUB CREW CONFERS

The pilot changes their speed.

-Fully out?

-Yeah, fully out.

So the line is straight, away from the submersible.

OK, that's all right.

Now, they're managing to maintain a five-metre distance,

so as not to scare the giant squid.

There, OK.

TEAM CONFERS

TRANSLATION: The bait is good, the place is good.

It's good to come.

This is the ideal prey.

So, now is the time.

I'm ready.

'Passing through 460. Life support is OK.'

They still haven't reached the depth

where Medusa's remote camera got its shot of the giant.

It's dark and silent and Dr Kubodera is getting sleepy.

-Tired, doctor?

-Pardon?

-Tired?

-More sleepy.

Passing through 600 metres. Life support OK.

Two hours after the dive began, they reach 630 metres.

To stay awake, Dr Kubodera wipes the hull.

Oh, oh, oh!

Suddenly, out of the darkness,

something huge starts to attack the bait.

TRANSLATION: Can you turn the light?

That's incredible!

Light! Light, please!

-Light!

-White light! White light, please!

A giant squid has finally revealed itself.

It's not only massive and surreal,

but dazzlingly beautiful.

It has the one-metre-long diamondback squid

firmly in its grasp.

It remains in the spotlight.

It's not going to abandon a good meal.

It is at least three metres long.

TRANSLATION: What a surprise!

It really, really came.

It's shining like gold. Oh, wow!

Look how that body shines.

That the giant squid should shine like burnished gold

is something no-one, not even Dr Kubodera, had expected.

TRANSLATION: Look! Look at that eye!

It scans us with its enormous eye.

What can it be thinking?

He blinked his eye.

One huge wink.

OK. Stay here as long as we can take it.

But there's a problem.

-It's sinking!

-Yes, sir. 690.

We're sinking.

It's the two are very heavy, I'm sorry.

The giant squid is sinking lower and lower with the prey in its grasp.

The submersible has to follow, down into the darkness.

800 metres. Eight, zero, zero metres.

We're falling while the giant squid eats our bait.

Food must be a very precious thing down here.

-It's eating him.

-Yeah, eating it!

Grasping its meal with its numerous suckers,

it clearly has no intention of letting go.

Then, its behaviour begins to change.

It starts to undulate its long arms.

It looks as if it's trying to swim upwards,

perhaps attempting to take the prey away from the light.

It propels itself by forcing water

through the short white tube next to its eye.

Although it appears to be swimming slowly,

this gigantic creature has huge power.

883 metres. Life support OK.

The submersible is approaching its 1,000-metre limit.

For safety, the pilot must now slow their descent.

But the change seems to startle the squid.

-It's leaving.

-Oh, it's leaving.

-It's leaving!

Oh, it's leaving!

Oh, oh, it's leaving!

Go away!

It retreats into its world of darkness.

-Oh!

-The giant squid has just left.

The encounter lasted 23 minutes,

the most moving minutes in Dr Kubodera's 40 years of research.

It's time to return to the surface and the rest of the team.

And he's gone and done it and he's gone and got the giant squid,

so I can't wait to get him back on board

and actually see the footage that he's got. It's fantastic.

Oh, he's got to be the happiest guy alive.

I'm so thrilled it was him. I mean, he's just got to be over the moon.

I can't wait to see what he got!

THEY CHEER

Oh, everybody's waiting.

-Very happy to see you.

-Very happy.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

This is great, Doctor!

-Oh, we're looking forward to it. Congratulations!

-Yeah. Thank you.

What took you so long?

This first glimpse of the planet's most elusive large animal

is a revelation in itself.

But it also gives an insight

into how the giant squid survives at great depths.

With a closer look,

we can see two short arms with small suckers.

This particular giant seems to have lost its long tentacles,

but these could be them, in the process of regeneration.

If they grow back to their original length,

the squid could be twice as long as the sub - seven to eight metres.

TRANSLATION: It was incredible! It was so large and beautiful.

It is likely that the giant squid has moved into the deep ocean,

because competition in the shallow seas is so intense.

But it's possible it found itself in an even harsher environment

than the one it left behind.

To survive, it has to feed on anything it finds.

The greatest surprise for me, still,

is that a squid of this gigantic size exists, here in the deep sea,

here, on Earth.

These amazing images show how well squids have adapted

to life in the dark waters of the deep sea.

Modern technology and human ingenuity

have given us a small window into a much larger mystery.

Our first encounter with this magnificent animal reminds us

that the furthest reaches of our oceans

and their extraordinary inhabitants,

remain a vast and unexplored world.