Rare Gigantic Squid Emerges in Toyama Bay in Japan

Christmas Eve in central Japan's Toyama Bay was special for locals living near the water as a rarely sighted giant squid swam just under the water's surface for a couple of hours, giving onlookers at a pier a real treat.

"The creature swam under fishing boats and close to the surface of Toyama Bay, better known for its firefly squid, and reportedly hung around the bay for several hours before it was ushered back to open water," CNN reported. "It was captured on video by a submersible camera, and even joined by a diver, Akinobu Kimura, owner of Diving Shop Kaiyu, who swam in close proximity to the red-and-white real-life sea monster."

Kimura was not in the water when he first sighted the gigantic creature. However, despite his apprehensions, he decided to do a dive just to document the sighting.

"My curiosity was way bigger than fear, so I jumped into the water and go close to it," he was quoted by the news source as saying. "This squid was not damaged and looked lively, spurting ink and trying to entangle his tentacles around me."

"I guided the squid toward to the ocean, several hundred meters from the area it was found in, and it disappeared into the deep sea," he added.

Many marine scientists and animal advocates would probably thank Kimura for his audacious deed. Footage of a live giant squid swimming underwater is uncommon.

"It's difficult to tell exactly how long the creature is, but the shot of a diver next to the squid shows that it's around the length of three humans," USA Today noted.

"The squid was reportedly about 12 or 13 feet long, which is small by giant squid standards," CBS said. "An adult giant squid can grow as long as about 43 feet, leaving many to believe that this one was an adolescent."

Previously in October this year, researchers caught giant squid babies off the Japanese coast, specifically in the western and southwestern parts of the country. It was the first time that anyone has been documented as having caught very young giant squid.

"One of the squid was caught near Kagoshima prefecture and was alive at the time, while two were found dead in fishing nets which were placed off the coast of Shimane prefecture," The Wall Street Journal said. "All were caught in 2013, and a study about them was published in the journal Marine Biodiversity Records."

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