Frenzy of giant cannibal squid in darkest deep
Unprecedented footage of predators captured as Blue Planet II goes where no film crew has gone before
FIRST it was flying bird-eating fish. Now in episode two of Blue Planet II, viewers will see terrifying footage of giant cannibalistic squid feasting on each other in the murky depths of the Pacific Ocean.
It is the first time that any film crew has ventured 2,500ft (760m) underwater off the Chilean coast to capture huge shoals of predatory Humboldt squid.
The 7ft creatures, which flock to the area to hunt lanternfish, were filmed speeding along in packs at 15mph, and resorting to cannibalism when their food supply runs out. In one scene two Humboldts are seen fighting over a smaller squid. David Attenborough, who narrates the series, said: “When there are no more fish to be found they hunt each other.”
Orla Doherty, producer of The Deep episode, said: “We wanted to go way down to meet the Humboldt squid. We did a stakeout off the coast of Chile to find squid, which just involved sitting in the darkness.
“These are 2 metre monsters yes, but they’re these unbelievable beautiful animals. We sat in darkness and we played games with them.
“We had to put a red light on to get them interested and then we had to put the red light off because they got bored and then we had to put the white light on to keep them around us and then we had to put the white light off.
“It was this game with them and eventually we got to see them and film them hunt in their world in these marauding packs which nobody has ever done before. I don’t know if anyone will ever get to do that again.”
The species, which can live in shoals of up to 1,200, is one of the world’s most aggressive predators, equipped with a formidable armoury of eight arms and two long feeding tentacles, each covered in hundreds of tooth-lined suckers. Because they hunt in darkness it has been difficult to capture them. BBC producers worked alongside marine scientists to find the location of shoals of lanternfish, then sat and waited for hours for the squid to appear.
James Honeyborne, Blue Planet executive producer, said: “We see what they get up to down there and we couldn’t have done that without the scientists wanting to come along with us and all doing it together.
“So I think there’s a new level of collaboration and that’s why we’re also beginning to film things now that have a value to science because they haven’t been seen before.”
The episode includes spectacular footage from the deepest dive into the Antarctic ever made, 3,280ft (1km) below the surface. The crew persisted
even when their submarine started leaking and filling up with freezing seawater 1,500ft from the surface.
However, their perseverance paid off, and they captured strange fish with antifreeze in their blood, fields of giant sponges and swarms of krill that glow in the dark.
The strange tale of the Venus flower basket sponge is also told for the first time. Tiny shrimp enter the sponge as larvae but then grow too big to escape and are forced to spend their entire lives trapped inside.
Blue Planet II, BBC One, Sunday, 8pm.