As Dr Michelle Taylor took a moment to breathe in the icy Antarctic air, a stark realisation sunk in. The nearest humans, aside from her immediate colleagues, were hundreds of miles away on the International Space Station. The researcher and her team were on a quest to find undiscovered marine life in one of the most remote places on the planet. What was it like hunting in the deep sea for the unknown?<\/p>\n
University of Essex academic Dr Taylor was in the south Chilean city of Punta Arenas earlier this year when she received a text.<\/p>\n
It was sent by a woman she had met in a pub a few days before, who said she was looking to find an elusive colossal squid.<\/p>\n
This woman, Kat Bolstad, had seen a video shared by Dr Taylor’s team of researchers from their deep sea expedition, which was blowing up on social media.<\/p>\n
“Michelle, people keep tagging me in this video,” she wrote.<\/p>\n
“I’ve taken as good a look as I can and I’m 80% sure you’ve filmed a colossal squid.”<\/p>\n
Not many people outside of scientific circles were aware of Ocean Census’s 35-day quest when the R\/V Falkor set off from Chile in March.<\/p>\n
But Dr Taylor knew filming this squid, so rare that it still straddles the line between legend and reality today, was about to propel her work to the world.<\/p>\n