On April 20, local time, a giant squid appeared on the coast of Kohama City, Fukui Prefecture, Japan.
According to eyewitnesses, the squid is about three meters long, and the variety is still relatively rare "king squid", and it is rare for such a huge squid to appear offshore, but this is not the only squid that appears.
On April 2, the squid was also found off the coast of Niigata (xi) City, Japan, but unfortunately the squid has been dead for a long time, and it is unknown when it came to the coast.
In the past six months, this kind of "king squid" has been found in many places near the coast of Japan, there are live and dead for a long time, the smallest is about three meters, after this matter was put on the Internet, many people said that this matter is strange, because this "king squid" is not a common marine species.
Although the sea areas they live in are close to the continental shelf, they are all active in the seas 200 meters to 400 meters vertically close to the continental shelf, and sometimes down to a depth of six or seven hundred meters.
Many people may not understand, think what is 200 meters?
Is this the deep sea?
Let me tell you a set of data!
The international definition of the deep sea is below 200 meters, as long as the sea is more than 200 meters are considered deep sea, the coastline into the ocean is not all overnight, it has a gentle slope.
Of course! There are also places that can be achieved overnight, these places are high-quality "deep-water ports", which are unattainable, most of the coastline's continental shelf is gentle slopes, the average sea depth is between 20 meters and 550 meters, the average depth is 133 meters, more than 200 meters even if it enters the deep sea area.
The size of the king squid is very large, in the cephalopod can be ranked in the position of the second oldest, the big brother is another kind of "king sour squid", this squid is slightly larger than the king squid, the world has been found in the king squid, the world record ranking first body length is 13 meters, found in Kohama City, Japan, the king squid is still a juvenile.
Although the king squid is active near the continental shelf, it rarely approaches the coastline of the shallow sea, and these waters are not suitable for it, especially this several meter-sized "juvenile king squid", which will be guarded by the adult king squid in the deep sea area of the continental shelf and will not easily come to the coast.
The appearance of such a "king squid" every three to five minutes is obviously a change in the seabed, especially for this seabed organism living near the continental shelf, which is very sensitive to the activity of the continental shelf, and once there is any accident, such as an earthquake on the seabed or a volcanic eruption, it will cause them to escape.
Considering that Japan is on the seismic belt, it is not impossible for this to happen.
Some people even think of the sperm whale that appeared in Xiangshan County, Ningbo a few days ago.
Will the sperm whale stranding have nothing to do with these king squids?
The relationship between sperm whales and the king squid
Although the size of the king squid is huge, it also has natural enemies, and its enemies are toothed whales and sleeping whales, especially the sperm whales in the toothed cetaceans, which are simply the natural enemies of the king squid, and the two sides meet endlessly.
But most of the time the king squid is the food of the sperm whale, after all, the size gap is there, the adult sperm whale has a body length of 16 meters - 20 meters, and the weight has reached 50 tons, and the king squid is not a rival to the sperm whale even if it is ten meters in size.
However, there are also accidents sometimes, and the incident of sperm whales preying on the king squid "capsizing" is not unheard of.
In April 1978, a stranded sperm whale was also found in Nanjiao bay in Shandong, but at that time, due to the late detection and lack of advanced rescue equipment, the end of the sperm whale stranded could be imagined, and later someone found some suction cup-like marks on the jaw of the sperm whale, and there were also many strangulation marks on the body and stomach.
Through the comparison of suction cup shapes, it is speculated that this sperm whale may have fought with a king squid before it was stranded, but may have been stranded for unknown reasons.
At present, human beings do not know a lot about the king squid, the waters where the king squid lives are generally unattainable diving, and the use of submarines to observe the king squid is a long process, and the seabed is so big to find?
Not only do we know very little about the breeding characteristics of the king squid, but even where it breeds and where to breed the juvenile king squid, and even its fight with the sperm whale is only recorded a few times, and many times we see only the "defeat" of one side.
Of course! This defeat was mostly caused by the king squid.
Considering the stranding of sperm whales in Xiangshan County, Ningbo, and considering the stranded king squid, we don't know whether it is the sperm whale fighting with it or other reasons, which may be unknown, but I prefer that there is an accident on the seabed, and it is too common for the continental shelf along the Pacific coast to have craters and seismic belts.
These animals have an unexpected and aimless escape when passing through these places, and naturally there is a natural possibility of losing their way and straying into repulse bays on the coast.
Take this sperm whale, for example! It is to use ultrasonic waves to locate the direction and identify whether there is a block in front, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions may change the magnetic field surface at that time, and it is normal for sperm whales to be useless in ultrasonic positioning.
Speaking of which, there may still be some friends who don't know what the king squid looks like, or that the squid, squid, and octopus are not very clear.
Although the king squid is called squid, it does not belong to the "squid family", but belongs to the "squid family", and many people do not know the relationship between squid, squid and octopus, and even often confuse.
These three creatures give everyone the feeling of being very similar, they are indeed very similar, after all, they are all "cephalopod" creatures, there are not many cephalopods on the earth, and many of them are stupid and unclear.
Squid live in deeper waters, generally in March and April of each year is its breeding season, they will come from the deep sea to some shallow bays, these shallow bays are not the shore, but the kind of seabed shallow bays with seaweed kelp, they will use these places as spawning grounds, seaweed kelp is naturally their best choice.
This is the difference between it and squid, and the squid will also spit out a liquid like ink, so we also call it cuttlefish, the body is slightly flat and wide, the head is bagged, don't look at it to know that it is filled with ink, and it is not wrong to meet the squid that will spray ink.
Squid is even simpler, it is very similar to the squid, but it does not spray ink, and the mantle membrane is tapered, the head is diamond-shaped, and there is no squid's wide body, showing a tubular body, that is, "thin", the squid is fat.
And the most obvious difference is that the body of the squid will glow, although it is not so obvious! But it is easier to recognize than a squid, and it is easier to distinguish if you touch it, the squid has a hard bone, and the squid has only one soft bone.
As for the octopus! It is better to distinguish, octopus eight feet, we also call octopus, the head is round and very well distinguished, and the octopus IQ is also high, they have no bones, even a small hole can be drilled out, is the real "boneless work".
See here, do you understand?
This is not the first batch of king squid that appeared on the seashore in Kohama City, Japan, and has appeared many times before, considering the frequent minor earthquakes in Japan during this time, perhaps the appearance of these king squid is also related to this.
Animals are stronger than humans for natural disaster warning, and due to the relationship between vision and hearing, many animals can capture human blind spots, such as dogs can distinguish odors that humans cannot smell.
What do you think about that?