Japanese Scientists Hauled Up an 18-Foot Arm in 2004 — The Rest Was Still Attached to Something ...

In 2004, two researchers lowered a simple baited camera 900 meters into the Pacific and captured the first confirmed images of a living giant squid. The squid attacked the bait, fought the fishing line for four hours, and finally escaped by leaving an 18-foot tentacle behind. For centuries, giant squid were known only from dead bodies, fragments, whale stomachs, and mysterious scars. But this incredible encounter revealed that the legendary “kraken” was not a slow drifter—it was an active predator hunting in the deep ocean. And beneath the Ogasawara Islands, hundreds of meters below the surface, the biggest secrets of the giant squid may still remain hidden.