Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

Back in April a nine meters basking shark was caught in a fishing net four kilometres off Hitachi, Ibaraki. Weighing in at 4,6 tonnes, it’s the largest basking shark specimen ever found in Japan.

To the cryptozoology enthusiasts, like me, one image of the news item immediately reminded the famous carcass of a supposed plesiosaur caught in 1977 by the Zuiyo Maru:

The similarity is no coincidence, as it’s suggested the carcass was actually a pseudoplesiosaur, which is, it was indeed a basking shark carcass. Glen Kuban has a nice reference about it on Sea-monster or Shark? An Analysis of a Supposed Plesiosaur Carcass Netted in 1977.