TOKYO: Scientists and broadcasters said on Monday that they have captured footage of an elusive giant squid, up to 26 feet long that roams the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Japan’s National Science Museum succeeded in filming the deep-sea creature in its natural habitat for the first time, working with Japanese public broadcaster NHK and the US Discovery Channel.

The massive invertebrate is the stuff of legend, with sightings of a huge ocean-dwelling beast reported by sailors for centuries.

The creature is thought to be the genesis of the Nordic legend of Kraken, a sea monster believed to have attacked ships in waters off Scandinavia over the last millennium.

Modern-day scientists on their own Moby Dick-style search used a submersible to get them into the dark and cold depths of the northern Pacific Ocean, where at about 630 meters they managed to film a three-meter specimen.

After about 100 missions, in which they spent 400 hours in the cramped submarine, the three-man crew tracked the creature from a spot some 15 kilometers east of Chichi island in the north Pacific Ocean.

Museum researcher Tsunemi Kubodera said that they followed the enormous mollusk to a depth of 900 meters as it swam into the ocean abyss.

NHK showed footage of the silver-colored creature, which had huge black eyes, as it swam against the current, holding a bait squid in its arms.

“It was shining and so beautiful,” Kubodera told Agence France-Presse. “I was so thrilled when I saw it first hand, but I was confident we would because we rigorously researched the areas we might find it, based on past data.”

The giant squid, “Architeuthis” to scientists, is sometimes described as one of the last mysteries of the ocean, being part of a world so hostile to humans that it has been little explored.