AUT Squid Squad

Welcome to #ProjectESCA season 2! A week from tomorrow, @thomaslinley.com of the @deepseapod.com & I sail for Antarctica for 5 weeks with Aurora Expeditions, with our deep-sea camera system and a few new toys as well. With a little luck, we'll have some exciting to stories to share; stay tuned!

After an epic weekend of rounding up the final gear for #ProjectESCA season 2, @thomaslinley.com and I join Aurora Expeditions' MV Douglas Mawson today to start our next Antarctic squidchasing adventure!

#ProjectESCA has arrived in Dunedin to make final preparations before we sail out for Antarctica on Monday to go squidchasing. @thomaslinley.com and I are hoping this is a good omen...

T -5 days to the next voyage! Want to know the story of #ProjectESCA? @thomaslinley.com and I chatted about how we got here on the @deepseapod.com in honor of the colossal squid's 100th birthday www.deepseapod.com/episodes/056...

Ooooo yeah, one more piece for our upcoming show in Juneau Alaska! A deep-sea octopus, titled “Living the Kaleidoscope Life” this 16x20” acrylic on canvas is based on deep sea footage taken by NOAA off the coast of Alaska in 2023 #deepsea #deepseacreatures #octopus 🦑🐡 #sciart #womenartists #painting

You ready for our 2026 Valentines?? The art is ready for ya 😍 As with everything on our shop, sales of these valentines support @skypeascientist.bsky.social! This year's cards were designed by Philly artist @aprilfinfrock.bsky.social! Obsessed with how these turned out. order at SquidFacts.net

Clearly amazing appearance around 888m in #MarDelPlataCanyon: Amphitretus sp. This telescope octopus has adapted to live in a place where there is nowhere to hide but in plain sight. Deep gratitude to @autsquidsquad.bsky.social for species ID. Description on Insta: www.instagram.com/reel/DNittGh...

Graneledone. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 812 #MarDelPlataCanyon #MarineLife

Me and @autsquidsquad.bsky.social have been annotating @schmidtocean.bsky.social #Antarctic footage today and it may have driven us a little.... Strange. #soundon #Cephalopods #octopus #antarctica

quick test print 🐡 ... have to do some corrections

And a teensy glass squid (cranchiid), Liocranchia #SQXmas2025

#SQXmas2025 continues. On the larger end of the scale, a hefty warty hooked squid, Onykia sp.

We've had a couple of cock-eyed or jeweled squid species (family Histioteuthidae); this is a nice H. macrohista, one of the more extreme examples of tiny mantle (yes, that's the whole thing!) compared to head & arms. See also distinctive long arm-tip photophores. #SQXmas2025

This is a young Moroteuthopsis, a warty hooked squid (family Onychoteuthidae)

This year's Squidmas samples are from sub-Antarctic waters. This is Galiteuthis, a 'glass' squid (Cranchiidae, same family the colossal squid). There are undescribed species in this genus so looking forward to genetic results! #SQXmas2025

Day 1 of #SQXmas2025 started with this inspirational message

Merry Squidmas Eve! Tomorrow we dive into the NIWA/Earth Sciences NZ freezers once again to discover what deep-sea cephs they've wrapped up for us. We've been very good this year so hoping for some exciting specimens! Stay tuned 🦑🐙🎁

Young colossal squid footage! theconversation.com/a-century-af...

#ColossalSquid has been filmed in its natural habitat for the first time! Filmed in #Antarctica by @schmidtocean.bsky.social, we just had a press conference to share the news. @autsquidsquad.bsky.social provides the voiceover and context for the video. youtu.be/lzPoG9H8Hlo @pure-ocean.bsky.social

Dr Kat Bolstad (@autsquidsquad.bsky.social ) worked with glass squid expert Dr. Aaron Evans to help confirm this observation; she narrated this video. Read the full Schmidt Ocean Institute announcement here: schmidtocean.org/first-coloss...

Even squid love calamari. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 805 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

Idk what it is holding, but great shot of the tentacles! @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 805 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

Fantastic images of this squid! @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 805 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

Tiny little opisthoteuthis blinking. Thanks @jeffday.bsky.social for the ID! @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 805 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

One last moroteuthopsis for the end of the Expedition. Next one starts in July. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 805 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

A huge thanks to #IntrepidTravel for having me and @autsquidsquad.bsky.social aboard to deploy our #ProjectESCA #squid lure in #Antartica.

Likely Mastigoteuthis psychrophila

Cute little octo with leeches. Pareledone maybe. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 803 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

This little octo is having the day of its life!! All you can eat krill buffet for the win. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 804 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

A cyanea in the shallows. The video is from last summer. A lot of the corals seen here are now dead due to bleaching.

@schmidtocean.bsky.social just filmed a beautiful Antarctic glass squid (cranchiid) with hooks on the tentacles. Only two possibilities and one is the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis. Hard to be sure whether arm hooks are present (which would confirm colossal) but the clubs look right!

Happy bday colossal squid! The species was described in 1925 so @deepseapod.com & I did a centenary episode on the @deepseapodcast.bsky.social - www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/056-... 🦑🎉 Gorgeous artwork thanks to Gareth, a guest on our recent #Antarctic voyage with #IntrepidTravel for #ProjectESCA

A nice side effect of joining #IntrepidTravel is the chance for #scicomm - talks on #ProjectESCA & #colossalsquid. Loving the guest engagement and #fanart! Last night they were on the @deepseapodcast.bsky.social @autsquidsquad.bsky.social @pure-ocean.bsky.social #Te_Papa @autnews.bsky.social

Master Squidcrafter Heather has been at it again. Not sure #IntrepidTravel realized just what they were in for by having the #ProjectESCA team aboard--we brought a rather large stowaway! #colossalsquid @deepseapod.bsky.social @pure-ocean.bsky.social @AUTnews.bsky.social #Antarctica #deepsea

It's happening! @autsquidsquad.bsky.social and I are out with #IntrepidTravel deploying #ProjectESCA in search of the #ColossalSquid. Supported by @pure-ocean.bsky.social, #Te_Papa and #AutScience, we have developed a suitcase-sized light lure and camera system. #deepsea #deepocean #Antarctica

We're off! Setting sail for Antarctica to chase some squids with the #ProjectESCA camera system and @deepseapod.com, thanks to @pureocean.bsky.social and Intrepid Travel. Bring me that horizon!

Good thing the ones I'm after aren't usually at the beach! Beagle Channel / Tierra del Fuego National Park. (Could I pick up an urchin test or crab moult though?)

Ceph street art sighting! Spotted these arms on the side of a building in Ushuaia, Argentina, while out and about with @deepseapod.com as we prep to take #ProjectESCA to the Antarctic Peninsula next week

My latest newsletter covers a new understanding of cuttlefish ink and shark noses, as well as a shout-out to the @autsquidsquad.bsky.social CephRef project 🦑🐙 buttondown.com/dannastaaf/a...

Gorgeous male octo (maybe Muusoctopus rigbyae?) at about 1120m in the Antarctic

Super cool observation of a rarely observed deep-sea squid, Alluroteuthis antarcticus. Extra beautiful footage too! @deepseapod.com can we ID the fish prey?

Cute little octo @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 793 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife

Close Inkounter! #ProjectESCA gets its next squiddy visitor, a glacial squid (P. glacialis) around 800m. It gifts us a few puffs of ink, then drifts back into the dark Antarctic #deepsea. #antarcticclimateconnections #PureOceanFund @schmidtocean.bsky.social @deepseapod.com

Look at this Cirroctopus! This one is doing something! I'm not quite sure what it is doing, but it is something. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 783 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife

Dive is over, but here's a few things I forgot to share earlier. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 784 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife

Brisingid with a little amphipod, Cirroctopus, sponge, bryozoan & shrimp. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 785 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife

Sea pig with a fish friend, isopod that looks a lot like a trilobite, giant hydroid, & a cirroctopus lump. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 786 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife

A red Squid-shaped-squid playing with its food. Psychroteuthis glacialis is what we've been seeing, so maybe that? @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 788 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife

With our new deep-sea low-light camera on #ProjectESCA, we can see #bioluminescence as well as the animals illuminated by our lights. This might be a 'shrimp spew', a series of blobs of glowing mucous produced as a decoy to give the animal a chance to escape a perceived threat