First photographs of a live giant squid
On 30 September 2004 Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori photographed a live giant squid at about 900 m off Chichijima in the Ogasawara Islands, the first images of the animal in its own habitat.
2004 CE · 26.95, 142.30 · status: official
The account
The camera and baited line drew the squid in; it was photographed more than 500 times over four hours before breaking free and leaving one arm behind. The paper appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B in 2005.
The sceptical view
Not a mystery any more: the kraken of legend is a real animal, Architeuthis, which grows to around 12 m including the long feeding tentacles.
The researched reading
The first pictures of a live giant squid in the deep. A legend’s real animal, fully documented.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An unknown or out-of-place animal | 92% | The giant squid had never been seen alive in its habitat; a baited camera line at about 900 m off Chichijima recorded it attacking and grappling for four hours, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. |
| A cultural story | 4% | The images confirm the real animal behind kraken lore, while showing an active predator rather than a ship-sinker. |
| Something known, misidentified | 1% | Over 500 photographs and a severed tentacle identify the animal beyond doubt. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 1% | Peer-reviewed, with a physical tentacle sample; no plausible hoax. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 1% | Instrument evidence, not perception. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 1% | Known biology. |
Official position: A peer-reviewed scientific observation (Kubodera and Mori, 2005).
Connections in the atlas
- Giant squid filmed in the deep
- The kraken and the hafgufa
- The Kraken