"Elusive 'Octopus Squid' Attacks Camera: Striking New Video Revealed!"

 Elusive 'Octopus Squid' with World's Largest Biological Lights Attacks Camera in Striking New Video

Watch rare footage of the deep sea "octopus squid" revealing its bioluminescent lights as it attacks an underwater camera.

Two images show a red squid with two bright green tips at the end of its arms (left) and the squid wrapping its arms around an underwater camera (right). The elusive squid uses its large light organs to daze and confuse prey during an attack. (Image credit: UWA/Inkfish)

One of the world's rarest squid species displayed a dazzling bioluminescent show as it attacked an underwater camera in the deep sea, new footage reveals.

Researchers from the Minderoo Foundation and the University of Western Australia (UWA) Deep Sea Research Center recorded the rare event around 3,281 feet (1,000 meters) below the Pacific Ocean's surface. They used a free-falling baited camera near the Samoan Passage, a deep water flow area north of Samoa.

The team was on a research mission documenting the diversity of the ocean's deepest part — the hadal zone — when they saw the rare creature.

The animal in the video is a Dana octopus squid (Taningia danae), a member of the Octopoteuthidae family that eats fish, crustaceans, and other squid species.

Squid species in the Octopoteuthidae family have eight arms, giving them the name octopus squid. Juveniles have two long tentacles in addition to their arms, but these are lost as they grow.

These squid are known for their large size. The longest recorded individual was a 7.5-foot-long (2.3 m) female, according to a 2003 study. The squid in the new video is around 2.5 feet (75 centimeters) long, UWA stated.

In the footage, the squid suddenly emerges from the dark, darts toward the camera, and engulfs it with its arms before quickly retreating. Just before grabbing the camera, the squid shows off a pair of bright, light-emitting organs, known as photophores, at the tips of two of its arms.

These squid have the largest photophores in the animal kingdom, researchers wrote. But scientists have rarely seen their biological lights in action.

"As we were reviewing the footage, we realized we had captured something very rare," Heather Stewart, a marine geologist and affiliate researcher at UWA, said. "I think we were very lucky to witness this."

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Researchers believe the squid's photophores help them stun prey in the deep sea's dark waters and possibly communicate with others of the same species. These squid can change the pattern of flashes by controlling eyelid-like membranes covering their light-producing organs, a 2017 study found.

In the video, the squid "descended on our camera assuming it was prey and tried to startle it with its huge bioluminescent headlights," Stewart said.

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Researchers know very little about this species' behavior because T. danae are rarely seen alive.

"Many records of this species are from strandings, accidental bycatch, or the stomach contents of whales," Alan Jamieson, director of UWA's Deep Sea Research Centre, said.

T. danae were first spotted alive around 19 years ago by researchers using a similar camera system, a 2007 study stated. They have been seen alive only a few times since.

"The rarity of live observations of these amazing animals makes every encounter valuable in gathering information on geographic locations, depth, and behavior," Jamieson said.