Beachgoers in Japan were left stunned recently as a rare giant squid washed ashore. On the morning of April 20, local fishermen noticed the marine creature floating on the coast of Ugu in Obama city, Fukui prefecture.
The authorities have measured the mammoth cephalopod and found it was almost 10 feet long and weighed about 70 kilograms. The huge squid was still moving and alive when it was first found; however, later it sadly got weaker and died.
The body has been delivered to the Echizen Matsushima Aquarium in Sakai city, where it will be displayed to the public during the country’s Golden Week holidays.
Fisherman Kazuyuki Hamakami, 45, said: “I discovered the giant squid while repairing a net. I noticed its bright red color ten meters away from where I was standing. I was excited when I found out that the squid was alive. I called other fishermen, and they all were surprised too.”
Normally, giant squid are elusive as they normally dwell in their natural habitat in the deep sea. In 2004, researchers in Japan took the first photos of a live giant squid back. Two years later, in 2006, scientists from Japan’s National Science Museum managed to catch and bring to the surface a 24-foot female giant squid. National Geographic then said the largest giant squid to be measured was 59 feet long and weighed almost one ton.
This comes after back in 2020, the extremely rare bigfin squid was spotted in the Australian waters for the first time. The rare sea creature was found around two kilometers underwater during some underwater surveys being taken in the Great Australian Bight, an open bay off Australia’s southern coast.
The bigfin squid was first spotted by the researchers more than 2100 meters underwater. To spot the squid, the researchers involved in the survey tied a camera to the bottom of a boat. In subsequent surveys, the rare squid was spotted on several occasions.
Using state-of-the-art lasers, the team measured one of the squid’s. They found that the bigfin squid was, in fact, 1.8 meters long, and its tentacles account for 1.68 meters of that length.
Two out of the five bigfin squid’s that were spotted were just 300 meters apart. This is rare for the sea creatures as they are never normally seen in the ocean so close together.
Researchers are hoping that they will get even more sightings of the rare sea creature to help them develop their knowledge of the animal.
Overall, the discovery of the giant squid on the shores of Ugu in Japan serves as a reminder of the mysteries that lie beneath the ocean’s surface. These fascinating creatures continue to captivate our imaginations and inspire further exploration and conservation efforts to protect the unique marine life that inhabits our vast and diverse oceans.
