We’ve all seen the clickbait. You’re scrolling through YouTube or TikTok and see a thumbnail of a kraken-sized monster dragging a ship underwater. It’s usually fake. Honestly, if you’re looking for high-definition, National Geographic-style videos of colossal squid swimming casually in the wild, you’re going to be disappointed. They basically don't exist.
The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is a ghost. It lives in the Southern Ocean, thousands of feet below the freezing Antarctic waves. We know they’re real because we find their beaks in the stomachs of sperm whales. We know they’re huge because we’ve hauled up a few dying specimens in fishing nets. But catching them on camera? That’s a whole different nightmare.
The struggle to capture videos of colossal squid
Why is it so hard? For starters, the pressure at $2,000$ meters deep would crush a human like a soda can. You need specialized ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) or deep-sea cameras that cost more than a suburban home. Even then, the ocean is big. Really big. You’re essentially dropping a GoPro into a pitch-black abyss the size of a continent and hoping a legendary predator wanders by.
Most "squid" videos you see are actually of the Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux). People get them mixed up constantly. The Giant Squid is longer, but the Colossal Squid is the heavy hitter. It’s wider, bulkier, and has swivel hooks on its tentacles instead of just suckers. Imagine a creature the weight of a grand piano with razor-sharp biological meat-hooks. That's what we're dealing with.
The most famous footage we actually have isn't even "wild" footage in the traditional sense. In 2007, a New Zealand fishing boat called the San Aspiring accidentally caught a colossal squid while long-lining for Antarctic toothfish. The crew spent two hours carefully hauling it in. The videos of colossal squid from that day are grainy, shaky, and show a massive, reddish-pink blob emerging from the dark water. It looks alien. It doesn't look like it belongs on this planet.
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What the 2007 Ross Sea footage taught us
That video changed everything for marine biologists like Kat Bolstad. Before that, we mostly had dried-up remains or half-digested bits from whale bellies. Seeing the animal "alive"—even though it was dying due to the pressure change—showed us its sheer mass. It was about 495 kilograms. That’s over 1,000 pounds.
You can see in the video how the light hits its eyes. They are the size of dinner plates. In the deep sea, you need those massive eyes to catch the faintest glimmer of bioluminescence. If a sperm whale moves through the water, it disturbs tiny organisms that glow. The squid sees that glow and knows a predator is coming.
There's another clip from a few years back that often gets mislabeled. It shows a large squid investigating a baited camera. Many people claim it's a colossal, but experts usually point out the proportions are off. It’s likely a large onychoteuthid or a giant squid. Real videos of colossal squid in their natural, undisturbed habitat remain the "Holy Grail" of marine biology.
The logistics of filming in the Antarctic
Antarctica is a brutal place to film. You have icebergs that can shear a ship's hull. You have storms that make it impossible to deploy cameras. Most researchers are piggybacking on fishing vessels or massive icebreakers.
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- You need a camera that can withstand the cold. Batteries die in minutes at these temperatures.
- Lighting is a problem. If you use bright white lights, you scare the squid away. Most modern attempts use far-red light, which many deep-sea creatures can't see.
- You need luck. Pure, dumb luck.
In 2014, another specimen was caught and brought to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. They live-streamed the necropsy. While not a video of the squid in the wild, it provided the best "close-up" footage of the anatomy ever recorded. You can see the hooks. You can see the beak that can snap through bone. It’s terrifyingly efficient.
Why we keep looking
You might wonder why we care so much about a giant bag of calamari in the freezing dark. It's about the ecosystem. The colossal squid is a major part of the Antarctic food web. If we don't understand how they live, hunt, or move, we don't understand the Southern Ocean.
There's also the mystery. We live in an era where every inch of the land is mapped by Google Earth. We can see your backyard from space. But 2,000 meters down? We're still in the dark ages. Every new frame of video is a piece of a puzzle we've been trying to solve since the first sailors told stories of sea monsters.
Deep-sea exploration technology is getting cheaper. We're seeing more autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) being deployed. These don't need a ship tethered to them. They can roam the depths for days. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets lucky and captures a colossal squid hunting in the wild.
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What to look for in a real video
If you're hunting for legitimate footage, keep these things in mind. If the squid is bright orange and swimming at the surface in tropical water, it’s not a colossal squid. If it has long, thin tentacles that look like noodles, it's likely a giant squid. The colossal squid is chunky. It has a very large mantle (the main body) and relatively shorter, thicker arms equipped with those terrifying hooks.
Look for the source. If the video is from NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) or a recognized university, it’s the real deal. If it’s from a channel called "Unexplained Mysteries 101" with a synthesized voiceover, take it with a massive grain of salt.
Most real footage is dark. It’s murky. There's "marine snow"—bits of organic matter falling from the surface—floating in the water like a blizzard. That’s the reality of the deep sea. It’s not a clear blue swimming pool. It’s a messy, biological soup.
Actionable steps for the curious
If you’re obsessed with these deep-sea titans, don’t just settle for low-res re-uploads. You can actually engage with the science.
- Visit the Te Papa Museum website: They have the most extensive collection of photos and high-quality footage from their 2007 and 2014 specimens. They even have a 3D model you can rotate to see the hooks.
- Follow NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research): They are the leaders in Antarctic marine research. When new footage is found, it usually breaks through their channels first.
- Check out the "Ocean Exploration Trust" on YouTube: While they focus more on the Pacific, their ROV feeds are the gold standard for what deep-sea discovery actually looks like. It’s often hours of nothing followed by seconds of pure magic.
- Learn the difference in anatomy: Study the "hooked" tentacles. Once you see the hooks of a colossal squid, you’ll never mistake it for a giant squid again. The hooks can rotate $360$ degrees, making them the ultimate grappling hooks.
- Support deep-sea conservation: The Southern Ocean is under pressure from climate change and overfishing. Protecting the habitat is the only way we’ll ever get more videos of these animals in the future.
The search for the colossal squid is one of the last great adventures on Earth. It reminds us that the planet is still bigger and weirder than we think. We’re just guests on the surface. Down there, in the dark, the colossal squid is king. And it isn't ready for its close-up just yet.