In December 2025, a fisherman off the coast of southern Japan filmed two giant squid at the ocean surface in daylight, with one apparently feeding on the other. The footage, posted online under the handle Yon Morikota, was notable because healthy giant squid almost never appear at the surface, and observing one actively feeding is rarer still.

Giant squid have been known to science for centuries without being observed alive in their natural habitat. Sailors across many cultures described enormous tentacled creatures long before modern cameras existed. Aristotle wrote about a large squid in the 4th century BC, and Pliny the Elder described a similarly large specimen in his natural history. These accounts influenced legends such as the Norwegian Kraken, the Caribbean Lusca, and other tentacled sea monsters in Japanese and Maori folklore.

The species received its formal scientific name, Architeuthis, in 1857, when Danish naturalist Japetus Steenstrup confirmed that a real giant squid species existed. For the next century and a half, virtually all physical evidence came from dead specimens washed ashore or pulled up in fishing nets. More than 580 such animals have been documented since the 16th century.

Giant squid live in deep, cold water, typically several hundred meters below the surface. They possess the largest eyes of any known animal, adapted to detect faint traces of light in near-total darkness. That sensitivity also lets them detect the lights of research submersibles and cameras long before the equipment can see them, which is a major reason they were so difficult to observe.

The first confirmed photographs of a living giant squid were taken in September 2004. Zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera of Japan’s National Science Museum and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association used a baited line with an attached camera at a depth of roughly 900 meters near the Ogasawara Islands. A 26-foot squid approached the bait and the encounter lasted more than four hours before the animal tore free, leaving part of a feeding tentacle behind. DNA testing later confirmed a 99.7 percent match to Architeuthis dux.

In December 2006, the same research group pulled an adult female giant squid to the surface alive near the Ogasawara Islands. It was the first time anyone had directly seen a living giant squid at the surface. The animal, roughly 24 feet long and weighing about 50 kilograms, was filmed before it died during the capture process.

In July 2012, a team from Japan’s National Science Museum, working with NHK and the Discovery Channel, filmed a giant squid swimming freely in its natural habitat for the first time. Using a submersible with a low-light camera, they located the animal at a depth of about 630 meters. It was never hooked or brought to the surface, and was observed feeding and swimming on its own.

Marine biologist Edith Widder developed a separate system called the Medusa to address the light-sensitivity problem. It uses red light, which most deep-sea creatures cannot see, and a lure that mimics the distress signal of a bioluminescent jellyfish. Some larger predators have learned to associate that signal with nearby prey. In June 2019, the Medusa system recorded the first confirmed giant squid footage in United States waters, in the Gulf of Mexico. A juvenile squid roughly 10 to 12 feet long approached the camera and briefly wrapped its tentacles around the equipment before retreating.

The December 2025 footage stood out because no specialized equipment was involved. The squid appeared at the surface in daylight and appeared to be in good condition while feeding. Historically, giant squid found near the surface have usually been sick, injured, or dying. Researchers have not definitively explained why this particular animal surfaced while apparently healthy.

Giant squid remain difficult to observe. Scientists still do not know how they mate, how long they live, or exactly how they grow. The largest confirmed specimen measured close to 43 feet including its feeding tentacles and may have weighed over a ton. Most of that length comes from the tentacles; the main body is usually no more than about two meters.

The giant squid is sometimes confused with the colossal squid, a separate species with a bulkier body and shorter tentacles. The colossal squid was first identified in 1925 from remains found in whale stomachs. It was not filmed alive until March 2025, when a research team near the South Sandwich Islands recorded a juvenile specimen at a depth of about 600 meters.

Even after multiple confirmed encounters over the past two decades, scientists still have only a small number of live observations to work from. The footage recorded by a fisherman with an ordinary camera adds one more piece of evidence about an animal that was known to exist for more than 150 years before anyone saw one alive.