Researchers in Japan have captured and filmed a live giant squid. Scientists from Japan's National Science Museum caught the 7m-long creature off the island of Chichijima, 600 miles southeast of Tokyo. The team filmed the squid as they pulled it to the surface, after baiting it with a smaller species of squid.
'It took two people to pull it in, and they lost it once, which might have caused the injuries that killed it,' said head of the research team Tsunemi Kubodera. 'We believe this is the first time anyone has successfully filmed a giant squid that was alive. Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future.'
The creature died shortly after being caught. It is the second time a live giant squid, the world's largest invertebrate, has been caught on camera.
The first photograph of a 8m-long live giant squid was taken by Japanese scientists in September 2005. A popular subject of myth and folklore, the giant squid can grow up to 18m in length.
