Divers Encounter Giant Squid Near Japan's Coast, Capture Exciting Rare Event On Video
Giant squid are as enormous as they are reputed to be. The largest one that scientists have ever seen was approximately 43 feet (13 meters) in length and may have weighed close to a ton.
Such a large animal shouldn't be difficult to overlook, right? The majority of what we know about giant squid comes from dead corpses that drifted to the surface and were discovered by fishermen.
However, because the ocean is so vast and giant squids reside deep down, they remain elusive and are rarely seen. Giant squid can extend their two feeding tentacles, each of which is topped with hundreds of strong, sharp-toothed suckers, to catch prey from up to 33 feet (10 meters) away.
These feeding tentacles are extraordinarily long, often more than twice the length of the entire giant squid. Prey is guided from the feeding tentacles to eight thick arms dotted with 2-inch broad-tooth suckers, where it is chopped into bite-sized pieces with a sharp beak. The radula, a tongue-like structure coated in rows of teeth and located inside the squid's beak, further cuts and grinds these bites.
A rare video of an eight-foot giant squid swimming off the west coast of Japan was captured by divers Yosuke Tanaka and his wife Miki, who own a diving business in Toyooka, Japan.
The divers captured rare footage of an eight-foot giant squid swimming off the west coast of Japan
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"
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.
The enormity of the squid’s eyes alone imparts a sense of its potential danger and the power of its tentacles
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
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.
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