Legend of the Deep

Captured on film for the first time in the wild, a giant squid attacks a baited long line off the coast of Japan. Previous specimens have been found either washed ashore or entangled in trawler nets, leaving scientists in the dark about their natural habitats, movements and behaviour.

Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at the National Science Museum in Tokyo, located them by tracking sperm whales, regular hunters of giant squid.

At each site he dropped a buoy with a 1km-long baited line, fitted with a camera. This shot, taken at a depth of 900 metres, shows an eight-metre long giant squid, according to Proceedings of the Royal Society B today. The images suggest the creature is a more active predator than previously thought.