#MarineWildlife - The video above is a world first for marine biology - the first known footage of a living giant squid in the ocean.
The remains of the elusive beast have been captured before, but news has now come out that a team of marine scientists finally recorded video of a living specimen deep below the surface off Japan's Ogasawara islands.
As RTÉ News reports, last July the team - working on a documentary for Discovery and Japanese TV network NHK - used a small submersible equipped with near-infrared lights invisible to both squid and human eyes.
After 100 attempts, they finally attracted the attention of a three-metre long cephalopod - small by giant squid standards, but the largest ever seen alive.
"It was stunning." said zoologist and team leader Tsunemi Kubodera. "I couldn't have dreamt that it would be so beautiful. It was such a wonderful creature."
The documentary Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the US on 27 January, and hopefully will appear on Discovery UK & Ireland soon after.