Some form of communication would be enormously useful.
The flashes that frightened fishermen and fascinated divers may therefore be part of a communication system operating directly in front of human observers.
The “Red Devils” were not simply emerging from darkness.
They may have been talking to one another inside it.
Cranston Wanted to Talk Back
That possibility led Cranston toward an unusual experiment.
If the squid used flashing patterns to communicate, what would happen if a human produced flashes of his own?
He constructed a device containing strobe lights and carried it into the water.
The concept was simple: present the animals with an artificial visual signal and see whether they reacted.
Then he descended at night.
Documentary footage places him at roughly 150 feet when conditions began changing dramatically.
Small organisms gathered around his lights.
Then Humboldt squid came rocketing upward from below.
Their bodies flashed red and white.
Cranston suddenly found himself surrounded by feeding activity.
Think about the strangeness of that scene.
A human being was suspended in dark open ocean, holding an artificial flashing device, while large squid capable of producing their own rapidly changing visual displays moved around him.
Only a generation earlier, much of what happened in this environment was effectively invisible to us.
Now a cameraman was trying to provoke a response from creatures whose signaling system scientists were still attempting to understand.
And those creatures could reach him almost instantly.
The Monster Story Began to Fall Apart
Calling Humboldt squid “Red Devils” makes an irresistible headline.
Reality is harder to summarize.
Yes, Humboldt squid are powerful predators.
Yes, divers have reported aggressive physical encounters.
Yes, their beaks and sucker structures can injure humans.
Yes, entering a feeding aggregation at night can be hazardous.
But those facts do not mean the animals spend their lives hunting people.
Context matters enormously.
Feeding activity matters.
Artificial lights may matter.
Fishing activity may matter.
The appearance of reflective equipment may matter.
Individual squid behavior may matter.
And curiosity itself can look frightening when the curious animal weighs dozens of pounds and explores the world with arms designed to grab things.
This distinction is important because humans have a long history of turning poorly understood ocean animals into monsters.
Sharks were treated that way.
Giant squid became legends before people could reliably observe them alive.
Even whales were once surrounded by stories that blurred observation with myth.
Humboldt squid entered the same cultural machinery.
Their nickname was perfect.
Their appearance was alien.
Their habitat was dark.
Their behavior was fast.
And their ability to flash red made almost every encounter look more sinister.
But Cranston kept returning because the behavior he witnessed suggested there was more happening.
The Most Frightening Part May Be How Little We Can See
There is another reason these encounters remain compelling.