On the quay of the harbor in Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture, there was a series of sightings of what appears to be a giant shark, the "megamouth shark," and experts said, "I may have approached the shore because I was hurt and weakened."
Megamouth sharks are giant sharks with large mouths that live in the deep seas of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and their ecology is unknown, and they are also called "phantom sharks."
Around noon on the 15th, Mr. Satoshi Matsuki (64), who lives near the port of Tateyama, sees a shark, which seems to be a megamouth shark about 4 meters in size, swimming while slowly shaking its large body along the quay. I took a picture.
In the surrounding area, similar sightings continued even in the morning of the 16th, and Mr. Matsuki, who took the picture, said, "I saw a black shadow, so when I first thought about something, it suddenly emerged. I turned the camera in a hurry. I thought it was a whale shark, but I couldn't see the spots, so I wondered what it was. The people around me were surprised. "
In addition, Masaki Miya, a senior researcher at the Chiba Prefectural Central Museum, who is familiar with the ecology of sharks who saw the video, believes that it is a megamouth because of its wide range of head shapes.
"Megamouth sharks have a gentle nature of eating plankton with a large mouth, and witness information is increasing recently, but the detailed ecology is unknown. Occasionally because it goes back and forth between the deep sea and the surface layer at a depth of about 300 meters. It may get caught in a set net, but usually it doesn't come so close to the shore, and the white parts of the body may be injured and weakened. "