Sea Monster

To read a newspaper article about this huge fish which has made many people believe in "sea monsters". This very long, thin fish, with its strange looking head covered in protrusions and reaching lengths as long as 15 meters, could easily be taken for a sea monster.

The first account of this "sea monster" was probably in 1771 when Danish naturalist Morton Brunnich noted a beast he found washed up on the beach in Norway. The oarfish, is so named because of its long oar-like pelvic fins. A few examples of these fish have appeared over the years were usually found dead at the surface or washed up on a beach. Little is known about them.

Basking Shark

A friggin’ huge shark was captured off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture. Fisherman attempted to bring the huge fish to an aquarium, but it did not survive the process. At the time, the news media was unsure of exactly what type of shark it was, but it has since been identified as a basking shark. The shark was 9-meters long and weighed over 4.5 tons, making it the largest shark of its kind captured in Japanese waters.