Japanese divers film the moment they encounter a giant squid | Science and Ecology | Dr..

Two Japanese divers recently captured footage of rare encounters with a 2.5-meter giant squid swimming off the western coast of the Japanese archipelago.

Fishing tackle salesman Yusuke Tanaka and his wife Miki, diving instructors in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture (west), warned that he had seen a giant squid near the surface in a bay.

“colossal squid”

the couple described Their meeting in the diving service blogThey set off in search of mollusks near a rocky shore, where there was a lot of seaweed: “There was a huge squid,” Tanaka explained.

“It did not have the graceful movements of many fish and sea creatures. Its tentacles and fins moved very slowly,” he said.

The diver noted that the squid appeared weak and some of its skin appeared to have come off its body.

The animal’s size and enormous eyes were surprising, and he admitted he was “terrified” because “I have very thick arms; if they catch me, I can’t escape.”

I can grow so much more

After 30 minutes, the marine animal is lost from sight in the depths of the ocean. Giant squid are known to live in the waters near Japan and sometimes end up on its shores, but it is very rare to see them alive in the sea.

According to experts, this giant squid with a length of 2.5 meters was relatively “small”. According to John Ablett, an expert on molluscs and cephalopods at the Natural History Museum in London, giant squids can reach almost 12 meters in length.

“It is believed that the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoniIt can be up to size [incluso] larger in mass and perhaps also in length than a giant squid, although no one has ever found a mature specimen.

JU (afp, nhk.or.jp, newsweek.com, cnn.com)