In 2000, O'Shea set the world record for deep-sea squid curation after he kept a squid that normally lives 300m below sea level alive in a tank for five months. It was just my word, which was all I ever had, and to this day have."Īt times over the years he has come astonishingly close. "I said I would, and that I would not give up until I had achieved it, or it had been achieved. He declared a quest to capture a live squid, a juvenile, and raise it in captivity.Īs to why this love affair has lasted so long, O'Shea can only point to a promise he made on an early documentary. His love affair with Architeuthis began more than 15 years ago, while he was working for Niwa, after he took charge of a giant squid washed up near Wellington. He has been a prominent figure in conservation for years, arguing for marine reserves and against invasive fishing practices. O'Shea is likely best known to New Zealanders as "the squid man" who helped preserve the colossal squid - the giant's big brother - fished out of the Antarctic by a trawler and now on display in Te Papa. "So I thought that if you can throw something into the water column that can bring a sex-crazed animal to you, that would give us the best chance to film it, to keep it for the longest amount of time." That's the period when they lose it," he says. "I've always focused on the reproduction of the squid. Each would use a different method - bait, chemical or light - in the hope that at least one would prove successful and the millions of dollars invested in the documentary wouldn't go to waste. Funded by the Discovery Channel and Japan's national broadcaster NHK, the trip saw three world-renowned squid experts brought together aboard the luxury research vessel Alucia and provided with the equipment needed to lure the squid close enough to capture it on film for the first time. The mission to find the "monster" had left port six weeks earlier, setting sail in June 2012 from Sagami Bay for the Ogasawara islands, 1000km south of Tokyo. After so much time, so much money, could this really be the elusive giant squid? As the creature edged closer the scientist in the submarine held his breath. The only light was from infrared sensors, designed to be invisible to the peculiar creatures that live deep below the surface. The stuff of Greek myths and Nordic legends that have plagued ocean explorers, sailors and scientists for centuries and provided one of the last great remaining mysteries of the deep. Three metres long, with silvery tentacles and a blue-green eye as big as your head.
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It came out of the blackness, and disappeared into blackness. This amazing silvery animal sitting there, watching us as intently as we were watching it’’. Steve O’Shea described the giant squid as ‘‘an amazing iridescent thing.