In 2000, former Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) scientist Bill Ireland published a retrospective analysis of the Kaikōura lights in the journal of the New Zealand Skeptics. Drawing on footage that appeared in the 1982 BBC documentary The Case of the UFOs, Ireland argued that the images filmed from the Safe Air Argosy were consistent with lights from squid fishing vessels operating at sea rather than an unidentified aerial object.^[1]

Ireland re-examined frames from the 16 mm film recorded by David Crockett (as published by the BBC ^[2]), noting that the footage had been captured using two zoom lenses (16–100 mm and 80–240 mm). He argued that earlier calculations by physicist Bruce Maccabee had assumed an incorrect focal length, which led to overestimates of the apparent size and brightness of the filmed object. According to Ireland, some frames show multiple parallel rows of discrete lights rather than a single luminous source.^[1]

From measurements of the images and assumptions about viewing geometry, Ireland estimated the lights were about 6 km from the aircraft and arranged in rows roughly matching the lighting rigs used on squid fishing boats. Such vessels typically carried two rows of high-powered lamps suspended above the deck to attract squid at night. The spacing, number of lights, and estimated dimensions derived from the film were, in his view, closely consistent with vessels about 20–25 m long equipped with rows of lamps spaced roughly 2–3 m apart.^[1]

Ireland concluded that the filmed lights were most likely a small group of squid boats operating on the sea surface and viewed from the aircraft under clear night conditions. On this interpretation, the apparent motion and brightness of the lights were the result of perspective, zoom lens effects, and the aircraft’s movement relative to the boats.^[1]

The footage analysed by Ireland is publicly available in the 1982 BBC Horizon documentary The Case of the UFOs. The programme has been archived online, and frames corresponding to those reproduced in Ireland’s article—such as the image similar to his Figure 2—can be seen in the sequence beginning at frame number 133786, approximately 37 minutes and 12 seconds into the film.^[2] Ireland noted that several frames in this telephoto sequence show multiple parallel rows of individual lights, consistent with the lighting rigs used on squid fishing vessels.^[1]

Finally, in personal communications in March 2026, Ireland described additional unpublished experiments examining how bright external light sources appear when viewed through a window that is fogged or condensed on the inside. According to Ireland, under such conditions point sources of light can appear as large diffuse discs on film, similar to the "beach ball" images seen in the Argosy footage. He suggested that the cockpit window may have been partially fogged due to condensation produced by the several people (up to 6) present in the cockpit during the flight. In this situation, distant lights that would normally appear as points or lines of points—such as the rows of lamps used on squid fishing vessels—could instead appear as large blurred luminous shapes when filmed through the window. The optical basis for this effect is supported by peer-reviewed research on the scattering properties of condensation droplets on transparent surfaces.^[3]