# Any update on the sperm whale/giant squid crittercam?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-update-on-the-sperm-whale-giant-squid-crittercam/618660>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 13, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-update-on-the-sperm-whale-giant-squid-crittercam/618660 "2012-04-13T14:10:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-update-on-the-sperm-whale-giant-squid-crittercam/618660/1 "2012-04-13T14:10:43Z")

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Back in the 1990s the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society funded a research project where the goal was to attach a [crittercam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crittercam) (a small, submersible video camera) to the back of sperm whales in an attempt to study their diving behaviour and that of the reclusive giant squid upon which they feed. [Some footage from one of the dives was shown on television](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DArqBmkO_p0), but I’ve heard nothing about the project since then. There’s no details either on the web page of [Clyde Roper](http://www.si.edu/ofg/Staffhp/roperc.htm), one of the principal researchers. Does anyone have an update on the project? Did they ever manage to get live footage of a giant squid? Is the study still ongoing?

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-update-on-the-sperm-whale-giant-squid-crittercam/618660/2 "2012-04-13T15:08:10Z")

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A Japanese researcher got footage of a squid attacking a baited line [back in 2005](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9503272/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/scientists-capture-giant-squid-camera/#.T4hBrtmhmdM). It wasn’t related to the whale cam project though.