The story
On 25 April 1977 the Japanese trawler Zuiyō Maru, fishing east of Christchurch, New Zealand, pulled up a huge, foul-smelling carcass about 33 ft long and weighing around 1,800 kg. It seemed to have a long neck, a small head, four large reddish fins and a tail. Afraid it would spoil the catch, Captain Akira Tanaka had it thrown back, but crew member Michihiko Yano first took photographs, sketches, measurements and samples.
The pictures started a plesiosaur craze in Japan, and professor Tokio Shikama of Yokohama National University was convinced it was a surviving marine reptile.
A team of Japanese scientists who studied the samples concluded it was most likely a basking shark. When a basking shark rots, the lower jaw, gills and fins fall away first, leaving a small 'head' on a long 'neck' that looks very like a plesiosaur. Yano's measurements fit a large basking shark, the photos show a dorsal fin, and the fin fibres are found only in fish.
What was shown or claimed
- A long neck and small head on a big body
- Four large flippers
- A strong smell of rot
Timeline
- 1977Trawler Zuiyō Maru hauls up the carcass
Christchurch, New ZealandOn April 25, 1977, the Japanese trawler Zuiyō Maru, fishing east of Christchurch, hauled up a large rotting carcass that some said looked like a plesiosaur. The crew photographed it and threw it back to protect the catch. Tests of tissue samples later pointed to a decomposed basking shark.
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