Hi blog.
Today is January 20th, officially Daikan (大寒), the coldest period of the year. (I have talked about this in more depth in an older post)

Today started off cold (but not freezing) and topped at about 14℃. Next week, however, we may get snow, and a maximum of just 2℃ is currently predicted for the 25th! Did I ever mention that I don’t really like winter?

Anyway, I’m in a hurry to get this post out, partially because of the significance of the date, and partially because the news I’m trying to sum up will soon be out of date.
The last couple of weeks have seen things coming out of the oceans and onto my news feeds.
Let’s do these in chronological order (or, at least the order in which they were covered in English…)
The first two are about giant squid.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230112_18/
Japanese divers shoot rare video of a giant squid swimming along coast
Thursday, Jan. 12, 15:04

A couple diving near the Sea of Japan coast have captured rare images of a giant squid.
Tanaka Yosuke and his wife Miki spotted the creature on the water surface near the Nekozaki Peninsula in the city of Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, in western Japan last Friday evening.
The couple are scuba-diving instructors based in the region.
They say the squid was about 2.5 meters long and that they saw it swimming while it slowly moved its long tentacles.
They say it disappeared about 30 minutes later while farther out at sea in deeper waters.
Yosuke told NHK he was surprised to see such a huge creature in the ocean.
Miki said she swam alongside while becoming absorbed shooting video. She said she was excited to be within reach of the squid, although its huge eyes made her feel afraid.
Honorary researcher Kubodera Tsunemi of the National Science Museum said that judging by its size, the squid was likely mature, at 1 or 2 years old.
He says such creatures are spotted several times a year along the Sea of Japan coast. But he says it is rare to have images of one swimming.
Kubodera expects that an increase in the number of similar sightings could contribute to research into the ecology of the giant squid.
Article ends.
Quite an up-close-and-personal experience most people can only ever dream of.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230116_10/
Giant squid washes ashore on Sea of Japan coast
Monday, Jan. 16, 11:41

A giant squid has been found on a beach in Tottori Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast.
A local resident spotted the squid on a beach in the town of Iwami on Sunday morning.
Officials of the San’in Kaigan Geopark Museum of the Earth and Sea identified the creature as a giant squid, known as Daioika in Japan.
The squid is about three meters and 20 centimeters long. It had been severely damaged and had lost the tentacles that are used to lure and catch prey. Museum officials believe the squid was dead by the time it washed ashore.
Giant squids live at a depth of 200 to 1,000 meters, mainly in areas along the Pacific Ocean. They are rarely found in Tottori Prefecture, which faces the Sea of Japan.
A man who lives near the beach said he was extremely surprised that the squid was so big.
Koyano Yuzo, a curator of the museum, said the squid had somehow traveled to the Sea of Japan, which is rough and has lower temperatures than the Pacific Ocean side. He said these factors are believed to have weakened the deep-sea creature.
Article ends.
At least we can be fairly certain that this is not the same squid from the previous article.
The next article relates to the sperm whale that drifted into Osaka Bay near the mouth of the Yodo River and died last week. While I was expecting the carcass to be buried so that the skeleton could be recovered for research, the authorities had other plans…
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230119_34/
Whale that died in Osaka Bay returned to the sea
Thursday, Jan. 19, 19:15

Officials in Osaka City, western Japan, say a stray whale that died in Osaka Bay has been returned to the sea.
The carcass of the sperm whale was carried on a boat to waters off the Kii Channel, south of Osaka, on Thursday.
On the previous day, workers removed the gas that had built up in the rotting body. They tied a 30-ton weight to it before its burial at sea.
The male whale was first spotted in shallow waters near the mouth of the Yodo River on January 9, and was affectionately dubbed “Yodo-chan” on social media.
The marine mammal appeared to be in a weakened state. City officials confirmed its death four days later.
An examination showed the whale was 14.7 meters long and weighed 38 tons. Officials say there were no conspicuous injuries on its body.
Experts plan to carry out detailed studies on its age and mode of life by examining its teeth and the contents of its stomach.
Sperm whales usually live in the deep ocean, and it is rare for one to appear in places such as Osaka Bay.
Article ends.
I was quite surprised when I saw the procedure on the TV news. I was convinced that the ballast and ropes were going to cut the carcass in two, but everything did appear to go according to plan.
Apparently whale carcasses in the sea create mini ecosystems that last for several years.
The next two articles are also about marine mammals, but are far more positive (at least at this stage).
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230119/p2a/00m/0li/021000c
Suspected Steller sea lion spotted in Tokyo Bay creates social media buzz
January 19, 2023 (Mainichi Japan)

TOKYO — Extremely rare sightings of a suspected Steller sea lion in Tokyo Bay have recently been a hot topic on social media.
Steller sea lions are sometimes spotted off Ibaraki Prefecture and the Chiba Prefecture city of Choshi in east Japan, but hardly ever in Tokyo Bay. An aquarium worker commented, “The animal possibly became weak for some reason and was unable to follow its colony, and wandered into the bay after swimming on the southward tidal current.”
A 54-year-old resident of Tokyo’s Kita Ward said that he spotted the animal on the shoreline near a runway at Haneda Airport in the capital’s Ota Ward on the afternoon of Jan. 15 while he was fishing on a boat with a friend. The animal was nearly 2 meters in length and apparently dived into the sea while they were watching. “I often fish in Tokyo Bay, but it was my first time to see such a marine animal,” he said.
According to Sunshine Aquarium in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward, it is highly possible that the animal is a Steller sea lion, judging from its fur and body color. Steller sea lions spend spring and summer in the Okhotsk Sea and the Bering Sea and go south to the waters around Hokkaido between November and May as they pursue fish to eat.
(Japanese original by Akira Iida, Tokyo City News Department)
Article ends.
Hopefully, the sealion will find enough food and make its way out of Tokyo Bay and back to its colony. If not, maybe capture and rehabilitation will be needed. Also, we don’t need people on social media to give it a “cute” nickname like they did with the sperm whale in Osaka…
Which leads us back to large marine mammals.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14819443
Coast Guard: Whale spotted in Tokyo Bay not a threat to boats
By IKUKO ABE/ Staff Writer
January 20, 2023 at 18:18 JST
A whale is spotted in Tokyo Bay near the Tokyo Wan Aqua-Line Expressway on Jan. 19. (Provided by Yokohama Coast Guard Office)
YOKOHAMA–The Yokohama Coast Guard Office on Jan. 19 witnessed the unusual sight of a whale spouting water and then submerging into Tokyo Bay near the Tokyo Wan Aqua-Line Expressway.
The office received a report at around 1:20 p.m. from crew members of a nearby vessel, then dispatched a patrol boat that spotted the marine mammal at around 2 p.m.
“It is rare to spot a whale in the area,” said a representative of the office.
According to the Coast Guard, the whale was at least seven meters long and swam on the south side of the expressway, about five kilometers off the coastline of Kawasaki.
The Coast Guard kept an eye on the whale until the evening, but it did not appear to return to the sea.
The office concluded the whale would not pose a danger to vessels operating in nearby waters and stopped watching the whale in the evening.
Miyuki Sumi, a breeder at Enoshima Aquarium in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, said the mammal appeared to be a young sperm whale, based on the shape of its head and back fin.
There have been only two or so sperm whale sightings in Tokyo Bay over the past 30 years, she said.
Neighboring Sagami Bay is part of a migration path for dolphins and whales.
Sumi said the whale might have strayed into Tokyo Bay temporarily, but there should be no problem if it makes it back out to sea by itself.
But if it does not leave, it could spell bad news.
A sperm whale affectionately nicknamed Yodo-chan that wandered into Osaka Bay and was spotted on Jan. 9 near the mouth of the Yodogawa river became progressively weaker until it died. The carcass was buried at sea on Jan. 19.
Article ends.
This one is still a going concern – not least because different news agencies are reporting it as different species. One Japanese language article quotes the animal as being a 12 to 13 metre long humpback whale. Unless there are at least two whales in Tokyo Bay right now…