Now, we were working with just two cameras.
One of them remained in the water column,
at around thirty metres from the sea bed,
while the other rested on a surface of silt where,
beneath the infra-red light, stealthy fish and crustaceans prowled around our lures.
The enthusiasm of the scientists was contagious,
as they pronounced hypotheses on the species that appeared on our monitors.
And that enthusiasm was more than justified.
We were privileged witnesses to a world that no one had ever seen before.
Finally, with the two buoys stabilised,
we could continue with the envisaged campaign plan.
The time had come to use our submarine robot.
Before submerging our little remote-control robot,
we planned to bait the ocean depths in order to attract
the greatest possible number of species,
especially the potential prey of the Architeuthis.
For this, we had brought with us 1,500 kilos
of frozen mackerel and sardines; 1,500 kilos
which we had to put into biodegradable bags,
then tie these to the sinkers and methodically cast them overboard.
To distribute the bait, we had divided up the chosen area,
a gently-sloping plain at depths of between 300 and 400 m,
into a grid with a total surface area of eight hectares
into which we would cast one hundred bags of bait,
one for each one of the intersections of the grid.
At nightfall, with the baiting completed, the weather began to change.
An impressive storm welcomed the Sea Rover,
the remote control submarine, whose camera would become our mobile eye in the ocean depths.
Armed with a highly-sensitive video camera,
our small emissary set off on its journey, shattering the reigning darkness.
The robot was controlled from the Calypso and, with the storm, this was no easy task.
But it was the counterpoint to the cameras in the buoys
while they waited for an Architeuthis to approach, attracted by the bait,
the Sea Rover went out in search of it.
Little by little, our spy was revealing the secrets of a world
which had remained hidden since the very origins of the ocean.
The first reflections that came from the ocean depths
opened a window onto a different world,
a desert of brown silt where large-clawed crabs of the Munida genus
stared in astonishment at the unexpected intruder.
The underwater currents caused some slight problems on those first steps around the ocean depths.
But the Sea Rover continued on its way without major setbacks
and the first beings of that region prohibited to man began to appear before our astonished eyes.
From the first moments of its journey around the depths of the ocean,
the little submarine robot gave information that filled our scientific team with enthusiasm.
The fauna of that underwater desert was scarce.
The majority of the species that crossed our silent path in search of cephalopods were invertebrates,
beings of strange, ethereal appearance that floated in the limitless darkness like
extraterrestrial creatures from a distant planet,
as unknown and foreign to man as these ocean depths that were now slowly revealing their secrets to us.
For three days, the Sea Rover plunged down again and again into that strange lunar landscape
where, despite the bait we had scattered, there were very few fish,
with only certain crustaceans, pennatulas and the spry and larvae of different species
bringing movement to the desert of silt.
The absence of life in that apparently inviolate abyss surprised us,
but some devastating drag marks reminded us that the hand of man
reaches much further than we could possibly imagine.
Perhaps these tracks could, in part, be responsible for this deathly quiet.
From time to time, the currents disturbed the sea bed and a cloud of sediment filled the dark,
barren desert of the depths.
Then, calm once more returned and once again we saw sea pens,
tube anemones, sea cucumbers, small shrimp and elusive spry...
But nothing that revealed the presence of the Kraken.
On the night of the 24th, our spirits began to fail.
The Architeuthis had still not appeared and time was running out.
And then, from the Calypso, the alarm rang out.
We all came out of our cabins and headed towards the Calypso
knowing that that alarm could be our last opportunity to film a giant squid.
On one of our fixed cameras,
in the invisible infrared light, a squid of just over one metre in length was prowling round
the pilot light of the third buoy.
The animal, a Todarodes sagitatus,
was an interesting species for our scientists.
But its appearance brought the disappointment of not having achieved our objective.
The campaign was coming to an end.
We had used up all our time and we felt a bitter-sweet sensation.
We had not captured images of a living Architeuthis,
but we had opened a door for exploration of the Carrandi trench,
an area where the existence of the enigmatic giant squid had been demonstrated.
Among the members of Transglobe a new desire had been born,
even stronger and more determined than that which had brought us to the ocean depths of Carrandi.
Our adventure had not ended,
we had every intention of returning with our cameras in search of the giant squid.
The Kraken Project did not end with the Carrandi campaign.
The analysis of the data and specimens gathered, by the scientists of the National Natural Science Museum
and members of the Marine Research Institute,
would provide important information on the biology of the Architeuthis and its habitat.
The male caught during the campaign provided new, valuable knowledge
about the reproduction and feeding of the species.
And, at the same time as the autopsy was being carried out,
the museum's specimens and archives were used for an in-depth study
of the species that appeared in the images captured during the campaign.
The specimens from the Museum's collection of cephalopods
and its computerized files were the means used by doctor Oscar Soriano,
a member of the Kraken Project, to determine and study each one of the species
captured by our cameras in the Carrandi Trench.
For weeks, Soriano put his patience to the test as he determined the genera
and the species of the fish, crustaceans, planktonic invertebrates and even some small squid
obtained from the hard disks of the cases placed in the buoys.
The search for the Kraken was, for the time being at least,
coming to an end. We had been unable to answer all the questions that would be resolved
with a single image of this living legend.
And all the members of Transglobe were determined to be the first to achieve it.
Because if our campaign made one thing absolutely clear,
it is that down there, in the perpetual darkness of the ocean depths off the coast of Asturias,
hidden from and oblivious to the activities of man, the giant squid silently prowl.