Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides: above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumber'd and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.There hath he lain for ages and will lie Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

The Kraken
Lord Alfred Tennyson

Their elusiveness makes them the stuff of legends: Monsters that rise from the depths of the oceans to wrap their tentacles around unsuspecting ships taking sailors to their watery graves. The Discovery Channel and Japanese broadcaster NHK have unveiled some of the first footage of the giant squid in its natural habitat. In this case, more than 600 metres underwater and around a 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo.

It took the researchers over 100 missions, and over 400 hours in a cramped submarine, until they were able to track down the mollusc and follow it to almost a kilometre below the ocean surface.

Squid expert Tsunemi Kubodera said the two successful sightings of the squid in 2012 and 2006 were both in the same area, suggesting it could be a major habitat for the species.

The squid filmed by Kubodera and Edie Widder was around 30 feet long (9.14 metres) with a shiny silver and gold tinge.