GIANT SQUID
by Kirk McGuire on 01/21/21
GIANT SQUID (Architeuthis) Scroll
Giant squid distribution
A Giant Squid Visits a Japanese Harbor
These denizens of the deep usually lurk between 2,000 to 3,000 feet below the surface
A fisherman noticed the 12-foot-long giant squid swimming beneath fishing boats at the Mizuhashi Fisherina in Toyama prefecture, reports Jun Hongo for The Wall Street Journal.
“Whereas the ones caught in fishing nets are mostly dead and their colors have already turned white, the body of the giant squid swimming inside the marina was red,” says Tatsuya Wakasugi, the marina’s manager. The squid visited long enough for a diver to arrive and accompany the tentacled beast as it swam. The diver, Akinobu Kimura, filmed the encounter before ushering the squid back out toward the open ocean.
© Courtesy of Tottori Prefectural Museum
A giant squid tied to a boat off Shinonsen, Hyogo
Fisherman Tetsuo Okamoto, 63, first caught sight of the squid as he was diving for turban shells about five kilometers from the town's Moroyose fishing port at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. The giant squid swam over his head when he was about eight meters below the surface.
Okamoto managed to snare it with a rope, which he tied to his boat. He then transported the squid back to the port, but about 10 people were needed to haul it ashore.
I do not agree with wrangling or taking a live giant squid.
The beginning of the 21st century marked a turning point in humanity's understanding of the life habits of the giant squid, as it ushered in the first visually documented and incontrovertible observations of live animals, both adult and paralarval (Dery, 2013; Mullen, 2013; Schrope, 2013). The quest to photograph or film a live giant squid—mooted since at least the 1960s—had begun in earnest in the 1980s and intensified significantly in the following decade, with several multi-million-dollar expeditions launched in the late 1990s. While these were all unsuccessful, they were followed by a steady stream of live giant squid "firsts" in the nascent years of the 21st century, and spurred further efforts that ultimately culminated in the first footage of live giant squid in their natural deep-ocean habitat—recorded off Japan's Ogasawara Islands in 2012.
