Japan Hosts Giant Squid For a Day [WATCH]

On Christmas Eve, a giant squid, possibly the world's largest invertebrate, motored into Japan's Toyama Bay, as the Washington Post reported. The squid that showed up there is estimated to be about 12 feet long, although scientists have previously captured footage of giant squid measuring up to 43 feet (13 meters) long.

These giants of the ocean are thought to spend most of their time deep in the seas, and to live worldwide. However, when they show up and are noticed by humankind, they are usually in Japan. In 2004 the first-ever images of a giant squid, Architeuthis dux, in the wild were shot near that country's Ogasawara Islands, and the first film of a living adult giant squid was taken in the same area in 2012.

One diver couldn't resist swimming up to the beast in Toyama Bay. "My curiosity was way bigger than fear, so I jumped into the water and got close to it," Akinobu Kimura said to CNN. "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."

The giant squid seen on December 24 was probably a young one, judging by its size.

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