A ghost of the deep has finally surfaced.
On Christmas Day 2024, nearly 7,000 feet below the Weddell Sea, a research team aboard the R/V Falkor (too) filmed a living specimen of Gonatus antarcticus, a squid species that has eluded scientists for decades. Until now, it was known only by the fragments it left behind—beaks in the bellies of predators, carcasses in deep-sea fishing nets. No one had ever seen one alive.
That changed when the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s robotic submersible, SuBastian, captured clear footage of a three-foot-long adult Gonatus antarcticus, gliding silently in its icy habitat. The recording marks the first verified sighting of the species in the wild and may upend what marine biologists thought they knew about deep-sea life in the Southern Ocean.
“We’re finally seeing confirmed footage of this animal that some of us have been studying and dreaming about for decades,” Dr. Kathrin Bolstad, a leading cephalopod specialist, said after identifying the squid in collaboration with marine biologist Manuel Novillo.
Though smaller than the better-known giant and colossal squid, Gonatus antarcticus belongs to a group nicknamed “armhook squids,” due to the single central hook on each tentacle club—a trait that clinched its identity. According to Dr. Bolstad, the discovery was unmistakable.
“The spots on the mantle [the tube-like body] tells us that it almost certainly can switch back and forth between being completely transparent… to being quite opaque,” Bolstad added, referencing the squid’s chameleon-like camouflage, rarely documented but long suspected.
The squid appeared to be in good health, aside from scratches and sucker marks—likely from past predator encounters. Its survival in the harsh, freezing darkness of the deep sea speaks to its resilience and evolutionary adaptation.
The encounter occurred during the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Expedition, a broader mission to chart unmapped portions of the Southern Ocean and study marine ecosystems at extreme depths. With backing from the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the team mapped abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, and canyon walls, gathering sediment and biota samples while running remote submersibles nearly 2.5 miles below the surface.
While similar deep-sea sightings are exceedingly rare, this isn’t the first for the Falkor (too). Earlier this year, it filmed a juvenile colossal squid—another species rarely seen alive. But this sighting of a Gonatus antarcticus was an adult, and that matters. A mature specimen opens up new avenues for research into behavior, reproduction, and life cycle that juvenile observations can’t.
Beyond the scientific excitement, the footage highlights the need for stronger protection of the Antarctic’s little-known marine zones. According to the British Antarctic Survey, most of the Southern Ocean remains unmapped. Scientists worry that climate change and expanding industrial fishing could endanger species we haven’t even discovered yet.
The Schmidt Ocean Institute, whose robotic technology made the sighting possible, noted that technological advances are allowing researchers to reach depths—and document life—that were off-limits just a few years ago.
The footage of the squid will appear in an upcoming National Geographic documentary and is already fueling new calls to expand marine conservation zones in the region. A Pew Trusts report urges global coalitions to act before fragile deep-ocean habitats are lost to warming waters and human interference.
While this squid may not dominate headlines the way the colossal squid once did, it has achieved something greater: it has rewritten what scientists thought was possible in polar marine research. For the first time, the world has proof—moving, unmistakable, alive—that Gonatus antarcticus exists beyond the shadows.
And for deep-sea biologists, that’s the kind of miracle worth waiting for.
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