Divers Encounter Giant Squid Near Japan's Coast, Capture Exciting Rare Event On Video
The enormity of the squid’s eyes alone imparts a sense of its potential danger
Giant squid are as enormous as they are referred 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 large and giant squids reside deep down, they remain elusive and are rarely seen. Giant squid can send out 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, frequently more than twice as long as 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 big 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 the rare footage of an eight-foot giant squid swimming off the west coast of Japan
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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"
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Marine specialists say it's unusual to find gigantic squids 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 give off an impression of its potential menace and the strength of its tentacles, which are strong 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
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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
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The body of a gigantic squid could 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 bigger!
This is what the divers came across, but luckily, the squid wasn't interested in them, and that's a relief.
