Scientists went on a hunt for the elusive colossal squid — and brought cruise ship tourists with them

In 2014, a fishing vessel caught a colossal squid, which New Zealand researchers dissected. Marty Melville/AFP via Getty Images

• Kolossal hopes to film a colossal squid in its natural habitat, the waters around Antarctica.
• The squid is large but elusive and difficult to study since it lives thousands of feet underwater.
• Using Antarctic tourist boats made searching for the squid far more cost-effective.

Over the course of four trips, tourists on an Antarctic cruise ship watched researchers lower a camera into the frigid, icy waters of the Southern Ocean. They had the same question every day: “Did you find it yet?”

The scientists were searching for the colossal squid, an evasive cephalopod that can weigh 1,100 pounds. Though 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 sea animal, like how it hunts and looks in different life stages.

“I always like to say that it’s an oversize poster species for 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 get footage of the squid aboard the Antarctic tourist cruises. Though he estimates the endeavors cost $500,000 in total, it was far cheaper than hiring a research vessel.

The cruise ship holds 200 passengers, each paying upwards of $6,720. While they expected lectures from geologists, marine biologists, and other experts, they didn’t necessarily know there would be a full research station aboard.

The team’s underwater camera filmed dozens of Antarctic species, including one squid resembling a young colossal.

The enigmatic colossal squid

Measuring about 46 feet with its tentacles spread out, the colossal squid is nevertheless hard to spot.

Adults live over 3,000 feet deep in the waters around Antarctica, putting them beyond the reach of even the most skilled technical divers. Submersible vehicles may scare them off.

Juvenile colossal squids are quite small. This specimen was taken during a different expedition. Dr. Kat Bolstad/Kolossal/Mulrennan

Many of the known specimens were found in the stomach of sperm whales, whose diets may be 77 percent colossal squid. Only 12 complete specimens have been found, according to a 2015 study.

“There isn’t that much that’s known about it because it’s so elusive,” according to Myrah Graham, a master’s student at Memorial University’s Marine Institute who accompanied Mulrennan on one of the expeditions.

They’re also difficult to preserve for long-term study, and so a lot of the fundamentals about them aren’t known, including how old they get, details of their reproduction, and the population size, Graham said.

“The bottom line is we just need to film it, and we can learn a lot off of just brief interactions,” he said.

Combining science and tourism

Mulrennan first became interested in colossal squids in 2007 when he was studying abroad at the University of Auckland. Researchers dissected what he called a “monster specimen” captured by a fishing vessel.

Though Mulrennan wasn’t involved in the dissection, he was hooked on learning more about the sea animal. In 2015, he made a goal to film the colossal squid within 10 years.

Antarctic tourism vessel the Ocean Endeavour allowed the Kolossal team to set up a deep-sea research lab in hopes of finding a colossal squid. Kolossa/Herbig

Chartering research vessels can cost tens of thousands of dollars a day. Similar expeditions have cost as much as $8 million, Mulrennan said.

Eventually, Mulrennan hit on the idea of getting on Intrepid Travel’s Ocean Endeavor, a cruise ship that would already be traveling to Antarctica.

Once aboard, curious cruise-goers would stop by and watch brittle stars and other deep-sea life captured by an underwater camera. The passengers started referring to the researchers as the “squid heads,” Mulrennan said.

“You’re getting this kind of privileged access immediately on board, Graham said. “One of the comments I got the most was, ‘Oh, I wish I had gone to school for marine biology.'”

In order to accommodate the cruise passengers’ itineraries of seeing penguins and seals — what Mulrennan called “air-breathing cuties” — the researchers had to pull all-nighters when the ship was in the deep ocean.

Sometimes the passengers would complain about the smelly toothfish bait the scientists used to lure the squid. The researchers had to be flexible about lowering the underwater camera, especially when the waves churned ice nearby.

Matt Mulrennan, CEO of Kolossal, gets ready to lower the underwater camera from a cruise ship. Kolossal

Once, the researchers had to take down their whole research station so passengers could use the nearby door for a polar plunge.

“You get 150 half-naked guests walking out doing vodka shots in your research station,” Mulrennan said. “It’s like bizarre stuff that can’t happen on a normal vessel.”

The future of the colossal squid search

During 58 days at sea, Kolossal’s camera captured over 80 marine species, including giant volcano sponges, dragonfish, icefish, Antarctic sun stars, and — maybe — a colossal squid.

“We’re not claiming this is the colossal squid, but it’s also not not a colossal squid,” Mulrennan said of footage of a translucent squid that the camera filmed.

Kolossal filmed a small glass squid in Paradise Harbour, Antarctica, but it’s not clear if it’s a young colossal squid or another species. Kolossal/Mulrennan

Based on assessments of experts who have seen the footage, it’s impossible to tell whether the animal is a young colossal squid or a full-grown glass squid.

Graham said she thinks it shows they’re on the right track.

Sometimes the researchers, like Marine Institute PhD student Jennifer Herbig, stayed up all night to collect data. Kolossal/Mulrennan

Mulrennan hopes to return to Antarctica during the next season, just in time for his self-imposed deadline of finding the colossal squid by 2025.

“We’re closing in on a hundred years of our interaction with the species,” Mulrennan said, “and we still know so little about it.”

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