Radioactive gigantism? Giant squid stories prompt another alarm over Fukushima disaster
Last week reports of two different giant squids surfaced on the internet. Although recent reports of an enormous squid washed up on shore in California turned out to be false, a giant squid hauled in by a fisherman in Japan last week appears to be quite real. The stories prompted another rash of concern about Fukushima radiation which could have caused genetic mutations in sea creatures that triggered uncontrolled growth – or "radioactive gigantism," the Voice of Russia reports.
As they hauled in their net on the frigid seas off Japan's Sadogashima Island in Niigata Prefecture, Shigenori Goto and the crew of his boat were hoping for a good catch of yellowtail. Instead, what slowly appeared was a mammoth squid, still alive.
The squid died when it was hauled to the surface. It measured 19 feet in length and weighed just over 350 pounds.
These squids can grow to around 14 meters in length. But Shigenori Goto, the fisherman who caught it, told the media "This is the first time I've seen such a large squid."
The squid was taken to a local government institute to be researched.
The other squid story happened in California. According to the article on The Lightly Braised Turnip a monstrous squid washed up on shore in Santa Marino. The creature measured "a whopping 160 feet from head to tentacle tip."
According to the news report, the squid's frightening size may have had something to do with "the waters near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in the Futaba District of Japan" — where it apparently came from — spurring a "genetic mutation that triggered uncontrolled growth."
"Scientists believe that following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant an unknown number of sea creatures suffered genetic mutations that triggered uncontrolled growth – or "radioactive gigantism," the article said.
The good thing about the The Lightly Braised Turnip article is that it increases awareness to an expanded audience. The bad news is that it’s a hoax.
The picture of the squid is obviously Photoshopped. The squid photo was taken from reports earlier this year of a 30-foot-long giant squid that washed up on a beach in Spain, and it was inserted onto a beach photo that shows spectators gathering around. The source also appears to post only satire. Let aside that there is no such place as "Santa Marino."
On Twitter and Facebook, the article was frequently shared this week. Nearly 1 million people “liked” it on Facebook.
"Very very very biiiiig *jaw drop* gigantism!" wrote one user on Twitter.
Another tweeted that it was 'one of the many impacts of the #Fukushima disaster back in ’11," while posting the Photoshopped image.
The article was also re-published and cited on some conspiracy webistes and forums.
Well, there's really a lot of talk going around about radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant reaching the west coast of North America. Although the situation at Fukushima definitely needs to be monitored, be careful about information floating around about it.