Hey. So, the bush-club squid was recorded alive for possibly the first time. I WILL CRY.
These are very rarely reported squid, even less common than colossal squid. This individual is a little battered and is missing their namesake; that would be their wild tentacle clubs, which have about 500 suckers. However, their proportions are unmistakable - a tiny head, with a large siphon, a long mantle, and rounded fins with a long pointed tail at the end. The initial reaction to this squid was pure confusion. I floated an ID with some teuthologists and eventually we came to agreement that this is Batoteuthis! This sighting also marks a range extension, as this squid previously was considered to only have a sub-Antarctic distribution, but this was much further north, near Uruguay. It goes without saying that words cannot DESCRIBE how happy I am to see this squid!! They're not popular like the colossal squid but they matter to me, ok. They're colossal to me.
