With super-thin arms that grow up to 26 feet long and a burst of fluorescent colors, the bigfin squid looks like something out of "The Matrix" or "Stranger Things."
Inkfish Expeditions (@inkfishexpeditions) shared a chance sighting from September 2024 of the elusive creature nearly 11,000 feet underwater in the Tonga Trench.
The footage shows the mesmerizing creature appear on-screen with its incredibly long tentacles coming into view of a deep-sea lander camera. It then halts, seemingly tugging on something off-screen while choppily moving upward and extricating itself from the frame.
Video captions noted that there are only about a dozen sightings of the creature on record and that it is the only squid known to live at the most extreme depths of the oceans.
LiveScience spoke with Alan Jamieson, the scientist who captured the remarkable sighting. The encounter was unexpected, as most past sightings were ones of happenstance during oil and gas activities.
"We always hope to see this type of animal," Jamieson explained. "[Bigfin squid] are not something you would actively go looking for; they are a species that relies on us coming across them by accident."
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He hypothesized that the squid was feeding or trying to do so and that the apparent struggle was related to prying its sticky arms free from the seafloor. While those arms are massive, LiveScience noted that researchers believe the body of the Magnapinna is only 8-12 inches long.
Since the species was only officially described in the 1980s, there are a lot of unknowns, according to Ocean Conservancy. Such sightings can add insight into these creatures as scientists speculate about why their arms are so long and other mysteries.
Commenters on YouTube marveled at the video of one in action.
"Babe, wake up, new magnapinna footage just dropped," one user joked.
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"These little (big) guys are so entrancing," another shared. "... Super fascinating!"
"Another alien sighting," someone else remarked.
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