Over the course of four voyages, tourists aboard an Antarctic cruise ship watched researchers plunge a camera into the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. They asked themselves the same question every day: “Have you found it yet?”
Scientists were searching for the colossal squid, an elusive cephalopod that can weigh 1,100 pounds. Although fishing boats have found a handful of complete and partial specimens, researchers have had difficulty finding one in the wild.
Matthew Mulrennan hopes to change that with Kolossal, the nonprofit he founded to film a colossal squid in its natural habitat. The goal is to learn basic information about the marine animal, such as how it hunts and what it looks like at different stages of its life.
“I always like to say it’s an oversized poster of how little we know about the ocean and how little we’ve explored it,” he told Business Insider.
In 2022 and 2023, Mulrennan assembled a team of scientists to attempt to obtain images of the squid aboard Antarctic sightseeing cruises. Although he estimates the effort cost a total of $500,000, it was far cheaper than renting a research vessel.
The cruise ship can accommodate 200 passengers, each paying more than $6,720. Although they expected lectures from geologists, marine biologists and other experts, they didn’t necessarily know there would be a full research station on board.
The team’s underwater camera captured dozens of Antarctic species, including a colossal juvenile-like squid.
The enigmatic colossal squid
Measuring approximately 46 feet with its tentacles extended, the colossal squid is nevertheless difficult to spot.
Adults live more than 3,000 feet deep in the waters around Antarctica, putting them beyond the reach of even the most experienced technical divers. Submersible vehicles can scare them.
Juvenile colossal squid are quite small. This specimen was taken during another expedition. Dr. Kat Bolstad/Kolossal/Mulrennan
Many known specimens have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales, whose diet may consist of 77% colossal squid. Only 12 complete specimens have been found, according to a 2015 study.
“We don’t know much about it because it’s very elusive,” according to Myrah Graham, a master’s student at Memorial University’s Marine Institute who accompanied Mulrennan on one of the expeditions.
They are also difficult to preserve for long-term studies, and so many fundamental things about them are not known, including their age, details of their reproduction and their population size, Graham said.
“Ultimately, we just need to film it, and we can learn a lot from brief interactions,” he said.
Combining science and tourism
Mulrennan first became interested in colossal squid in 2007, while studying abroad at the University of Auckland. The researchers dissected what he called a “monster specimen” caught by a fishing boat.
Although Mulrennan did not participate in the dissection, he was hooked on the idea of learning more about the marine animal. In 2015, he set a goal of filming the colossal squid within 10 years.
The Antarctic tourist ship Ocean Endeavor allowed Kolossal’s team to set up a deep-sea research laboratory in hopes of finding a colossal squid. Kolossa/Herbig
Chartering research vessels can cost tens of thousands of dollars per day. Similar expeditions have cost up to $8 million, Mulrennan said.
Eventually, Mulrennan came up with the idea of boarding Intrepid Travel’s Ocean Endeavor, a cruise ship that would already be heading to Antarctica.
Once on board, curious cruise passengers would stop and observe fragile stars and other deep-sea organisms captured by an underwater camera. Passengers began calling the researchers “squid heads,” Mulrennan said.
“You immediately get that kind of privileged access on board, Graham said. “One of the comments I got the most was, ‘Oh, I wish I had gone to marine biology school.’ “
To accommodate cruise line itineraries of observing penguins and seals – what Mulrennan called “air-breathing cuties” – researchers had to spend sleepless nights when the ship was in the depths of the ocean. ocean.
Sometimes passengers complained about the toothfish-based scent bait scientists used to attract squid. Researchers had to be flexible in lowering the underwater camera, especially when waves moved nearby ice.
Matt Mulrennan, CEO of Kolossal, prepares to lower the underwater camera from a cruise ship. Kolossal
One day, the researchers had to dismantle their entire research station so passengers could use the next door for a polar dive.
“You have 150 half-naked guests hanging out drinking vodka shots at your research station,” Mulrennan said. “It’s like weird things that can’t happen on a normal ship.”
The future of colossal squid research
During 58 days at sea, Kolossal’s camera captured more than 80 marine species, including giant volcanic sponges, dragonfish, icefish, Antarctic sunstars and, perhaps, a colossal squid .
“We’re not pretending it’s a colossal squid, but it’s not the case either. not a colossal squid,” Mulrennan said of the camera’s images of a translucent squid.
Kolossal filmed a small glass squid in Paradise Harbor, Antarctica, but it is unclear whether it is a young colossal squid or another species. Kolossal/Mulrennan
Based on the assessments of experts who have seen the footage, it is impossible to tell whether the animal is a young colossal squid or an adult glass squid.
Graham said she thinks this shows they are on the right track.
Sometimes researchers, like Jennifer Herbig, a doctoral student at the Marine Institute, stayed up all night collecting data. Kolossal/Mulrennan
Mulrennan hopes to return to Antarctica next season, just in time to meet his self-imposed deadline of finding the colossal squid by 2025.
“We are approaching a hundred years of interaction with the species,” Mulrennan said, “and we still know so little about it.”
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