Scientists have found traces of giant squid in six separate samples taken from two deep submarine canyons off the Nyinggulu coast, the first record of the species in Western Australian waters using environmental DNA protocols. The finding is also the northernmost confirmed record of Architeuthis dux in the eastern Indian Ocean.
The study, led by Curtin University in Australia and published in Environmental DNA, comes from an expedition aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor that collected more than 1,000 water samples across the water column. The team surveyed the Cape Range and Cloates submarine canyons, which plunge to depths of more than 4,500 metres and lie about 1,200 kilometres north of Perth.
That single result sits inside a much larger haul. The survey detected 226 species across 11 major animal groups, and dozens had never before been recorded in Western Australian waters. Among them were deep-diving cetaceans including the pygmy sperm whale and Cuvier’s beaked whale, alongside rare deep-sea fish, cnidarians, echinoderms, marine mammals and cephalopods.
Lead author Dr Georgia Nester said the giant squid find was the kind of result that grabs attention, but it was only one piece of a much broader picture. She said the team found a large number of species that do not neatly match anything currently recorded, which does not automatically mean they are new to science, but does strongly suggest deep-sea biodiversity in the region is only beginning to be uncovered.
The canyons themselves help explain why. Cape Range and Cloates are deep, largely uncharted habitats, and environmental DNA lets researchers detect species from genetic material shed into seawater without seeing or catching the animals. That makes the method especially useful in places where the ocean floor is hard to reach and the wildlife is hard to document directly.
For Western Australia, the giant squid traces fill a conspicuous gap. There are only two other records of the species from state waters, and more than 25 years had passed without one before this study. The new detection does not mean giant squid are suddenly common off the coast, but it does show that the deep waters off Nyinggulu still hold surprises large enough to rewrite the map.