Case file · Cryptid
A giant squid in the Gulf of Mexico
On 19 June 2019 Edith Widder's 'Medusa' camera, on a NOAA Ocean Exploration cruise, filmed a young giant squid about 3 to 4 m long, 160 km south-east of New Orleans.
2019 CE · 28.50, -88.50 · status: official
The account
It was the first video of a giant squid in US waters. Hours later the crew's ship was struck by lightning and a waterspout formed nearby, which made the story a press favourite.
The researched reading
A known deep-sea animal caught on camera by a clever lure. The storm that followed made a good story, but the science is plain.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 51% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | A known animal, correctly identified: the Medusa camera’s red-light video of a squid of roughly 3–4 m attacking an electronic jellyfish lure at about 750 m was confirmed as Architeuthis by NOAA/Smithsonian zoologist Michael Vecchione, who stressed that taxonomy, not size, was the test. |
| A cultural story | 4% | The lightning strike on the ship and a waterspout hours later were spun into a “kraken’s revenge” story; Gulf storms in June are common and unrelated to the animal. |
| An unknown or out-of-place animal | 2% | Giant squid occur in all oceans, including the Gulf of Mexico; the novelty was the footage in US waters, not the species. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 1% | A NOAA-funded cruise with the raw footage reviewed by outside specialists. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 1% | The record is video and anatomy, not testimony. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 1% | Nothing here falls outside known biology. |
Official position: NOAA Ocean Exploration and the researchers identified it as a juvenile giant squid, the first filmed in US waters.