Scientists spot bigfin squid lurking 20,000 feet below the surface – deepest ever found

EXPLORERS on the hunt for the deepest ever shipwreck found the deepest ever recorded squid instead. A team of researchers on the USS Johnston ship were in the Philippine Sea when they made their bigfin squid discovery. The squid was spotted deep in the Philippine Trench. It was about 20,341 feet below the surface. Bigfin […]

EXPLORERS on the hunt for the deepest ever shipwreck found the deepest ever recorded squid instead.

A team of researchers on the USS Johnston ship were in the Philippine Sea when they made their bigfin squid discovery.

Alan Jamieson/Caladan Oceanic

The squid was so deep down it looked like a faint shadow but experts could tell that it was a young bigfin[/caption]

Alamy

Bigfin squid have very long tentacles and lurk deep down in the ocean[/caption]

The squid was spotted deep in the Philippine Trench.

It was about 20,341 feet below the surface.

Bigfin squid are very rare to spot.

They’re known for their long tentacles that can grow up to 26 feet long.

Only about a dozen sightings of them have been confirmed worldwide and this was the deepest one ever recorded.

According to CBC, Zoologist Mike Vecchione told As It Happens host Carol Off: “It was exciting for me.

“I’ve been looking for cephalopods from these really ultra-deep environments for quite a long time.”

Vecchione reviewed the footage and still images of the squid for the explorers.

The researchers published evidence of their big squid find in the journal Marine Biology last month

It includes a shadowy image of the squid that was deep under the sea.

As soon as Vecchione saw the image he said he knew it was bigfin squid.

He said: “It’s got a really big fin compared to the size of its body.

“But really, the most remarkable thing about it is, squids have eight arms plus two tentacles, which are modified arms.

“But in bigfin squids, the tentacles look very much like the other arms, and all 10 of these appendages have long, spaghetti-like extensions at the tips of them.”

The squid the researchers saw didn’t seem to have the long extensions that the adult bigfin’s have so it was determined to be a young squid.

Previously, the deepest bigfin squid recorded was spotted around 15,400 feet deep.

That was in the Kermadec Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists get excited when they find a squid in deep and largely unexplored parts of the ocean because it means there’s likely more life down there.

Squids are large predators and they’re usually on the hunt for food so the young bigfin’s next meal was likely somewhere 20,341 feet below the surface.

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