Divers Encounter Giant Squid Near Japan's Coast, Capture Exciting Rare Event On Video
Off Japan’s west coast, a day that probably started like any other turned into something straight out of a sea-monster documentary. Divers spotted an eight-foot giant squid, and even better, they managed to film it while it cruised right past them.
It wasn’t random luck either. A local fishing-gear supplier had seen the creature in a bay and tipped Yosuke and the others off fast. They launched their boat, raced toward a rocky shoreline, and dropped into the water expecting the usual quick, darting fish behavior. Instead, the squid moved differently, slower and heavier, with those huge eyes staring like it had no reason to be impressed by humans.
The wild part? It looked ready to grab, but it just kept swimming.
The divers captured rare footage of an eight-foot giant squid swimming off the west coast of Japan
That’s when the diver realized they weren’t getting the typical “flash and vanish” moves, the squid just kept gliding like it owned the place.
A local supplier of fishing gear had seen the creature in a bay and alerted them to its presence. To obtain a better look at the elusive animal, they hastily launched their boat and traveled to a position along a rocky shoreline.
“We didn’t see the kinds of agile movements that many fish and marine creatures normally show"
The fishing-gear supplier’s tip set everything in motion, and suddenly a rocky shoreline became the backdrop for the rarest kind of underwater encounter.
Marine specialists say it's unusual to find giant squids of this size so close to the beach, but the video taken by Yosuke's underwater camera shows the creature appearing unconcerned by the divers' presence. The squid's enormous eyes alone convey an impression of its potential menace and the strength of its tentacles, which are powerful enough to ensnare a whale, one of its main predators.
And if you like daring underwater encounters, a diver confronting a 30-foot “sea serpent” sounds even crazier.
The enormity of the squid’s eyes alone imparts a sense of its potential danger and the power of its tentacles
When Yosuke’s camera caught the tentacles shifting, the whole moment got tense fast, because those arms looked like they could pull the wrong thing in.
The diver had this to say about the entire experience
“I could see its tentacles moving. I thought it would be dangerous to be grabbed hard by them and taken off somewhere,” the diver said. “It was very exciting. I think there is nothing rarer than this.”
Watch the rare sea creature by clicking the video below
And after all that rush to get a better look, the video ends with the best possible surprise, the squid wasn’t interested in them at all.
The body of a giant squid may seem quite straightforward: it features two eyes, a beak, eight arms, two feeding tentacles, and a funnel (also known as a siphon), just like other squids and octopuses. Of course, everything is considerably larger!
This is what the divers encountered, but fortunately, the squid wasn't interested in them, and that's a relief.
For the divers, the scariest part was imagining the grab, then realizing the squid chose to ignore them.
Giant squid footage not enough for you, check out the colossal squid sighting filmed for the first time in 100 years.
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