WHAT IS THE BIGFIN SQUID?

as explained on my homepage, magnapinna is a genus of deep sea cephalopods, referred to as bigfin squids. While previously believed to be one species, there's actually multiple, with 5 identified so far, though only immature specimens have ever been seen in person (so it's kind of hard to tell the difference LOL). They're my favourite animal of all time ever, so I thought i should make a page explaining them!!!!

bigfin squids are notable because they're... kind of freaks. I dont personally think they look freaky anymore, but once i tried to show a video of them to someone and they refused to watch it the whole way through because they thought it looked too scary. Which i guess i can almost understand. Their tentacles are 15x as long as their body and they're very thin. it's kind of freaky I get kind of scared they're going to get stuck in something or tangle up or something. and while, once again, an adult specimen has never been seen in person, video evidence has allowed scientists to estimate how long the bigfin squid is, with the largest ones spotted potentially being 26+ feet long. That's crazy!!!!!!!!!!! Aside from having a general idea of where they can be found and how long they are, not much is really known about them. I really hope we get to learn more about them one day.... it would make me so happy.

i think i probably first found out about the bigfin squid through one of those shitty clickbait Top 5 Scariest Sea Creatures videos on youtube when i was 16, which is really funny to me, because in the years since i've discovered it I can't think it's scary at all. it's so cute to me. since then i've been absolutely obsessed with them, and i've kept up with every single new video or image of them possible. ive read scientific papers on them. i'm so bad at reading scientific papers but I do anything for the bigfin squid.

BIGFIN SQUID MEDIA

Here's where i'm going to put all my favourite bigfin squid images + videos! huge shoutout to the magnapinna archive channel on youtube for compiling a lot of these.

2007 original footage

Probably the first video I ever found of them, also definitely the most well known video of them. tbf this video is pretty....um.. ominous. weird green light, incredibly low quality, the jerky camera movements... all really make the whole thing a bit scary. It's in better quality on the magnapinna archive (here) but tbh i think i have to put this specific version of it here. this one was recorded november 11th, 2007, 1.5 miles deep in the ocean in the gulf of mexico.

2021 NOAA Ocean Exploration footage

this is another one of my favourite bigfin squid videos, if only for the commentary in the background. Nothing brings me more joy than hearing the commentary of footage like this. Look at him go! This is some of the most recent footage of the bigfin squid, from november 9th 2021, once again 1.48 miles below the ocean surface

(i'll add some more videos later I just have had this page rotting in my files for a few months LMAO)

GIFS