I was amazed to read this report of a visiting giant squid in Japan.
A giant squid that wandered into a Japanese port has been guided back out to sea almost a week after it was spotted, giving enthusiasts and experts a rare glimpse of the mysterious creature.
The massive invertebrate, 12ft in length, was discovered by fishermen on December 24 at a port in the city of Toyama on Japan's northwestern coast.
New footage has emerged showing the squid - known as "Heck" - swimming inside the port, taken by someone looking down from above the water.
The squid was later guided by a diver into deeper seas.
"Its suckers were so strong that I felt some pain," Akinobu Kimura, who runs a dive shop in Toyama, said on TV Asahi.
"Even though I was trying to let it escape (from the port), it wrapped around my body and clung to my arm."
There's more at the link.
Here's video of the diver helping the squid find its way out of the harbor. The animal makes its appearance at about the 35sec. mark.
Darned if I'd want to swim with a critter whose tentacles were longer than I was . . .
Peter
5 comments:
Darned if I'd want to swim with a critter whose tentacles were longer than I was . . .
And an incredibly powerful beak to use on you once it had a good grip on you. Can you say "eviscerated"?
I'm with Larry...
That "Parrot's Beak" mouth would scare me to death.
I'm no expert, but I seem to remember something about smaller squid in Gulf of California being pretty aggressive. And, isn't this a really "deep sea" creature? What's it doin' at this depth?
Still, beautiful to look at... I'm pleased you posted the vid.
The ones in the gulf of California are the "Humbolt" Squid. They attack people all the time, and have been recorded to eat fishermen they could drag from their boats, in massive feeding frenzy's. They are less than one quarter the size of that monster. That thing is G_D's oldest surviving killing machine. Pre-dating the shark by tens of millions of years, and probably THE most dangerous thing that diver has ever seen in his life. I wonder if he knew that?---Ray
I have seen a lot of the Humboldt squid in the Sea of Cortez, AKA gulf of California - all the way from five lbs to 40. They will kill and eat anything. Occasionally they will kill themselves by beaching. Otherwise they tend to stay deep during the day and rising to only 100 feet or a bit more at night.
This one looks like it was dying. It was lethargic and in very shallow depths during the day. It was not interested in eating the diver. It was also red. They tend to turn red when stressed. They can change colors instantly.
Brave man doing that.
I hope the squid get better.
Heltau
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