Project ESCA – Antarctic Bioluminescence
Te Papa researcher: Thom Linley
The colossal squid has never been seen alive in its natural habitat. The small amount of footage of the living squid only shows a dying animal at the surface. The squid live in the midnight zone, a boundless 3D space where the dominant form of communication is light.
Te Papa, in collaboration with Auckland University of Technology and with the support of Pure Ocean, have developed a lure mimicking the squid’s own light signal and paired it with a 360-degree camera to try to record this animal as it really is for the first time.
Main collaborators: Kathrin Bolstad, Auckland University of Technology
Funding: Pure Ocean
Lure deploy. Photo by Thom Linley. Te Papa (257271)
Lure deploy. Photo by Thom Linley. Te Papa (257272)