TOKYO, Jan 20 (gulfnews.com) - A pair of scuba divers has captured rare video and photos of a 2.5-metre giant squid swimming in the waters off Japan's west coast.

Earlier this month, Yosuke Tanaka and his wife Miki, who operate a diving business in Toyooka city in the Hyogo region, were alerted to the squid by a fishing equipment vendor who had spotted it in a bay.

The couple took their boat out to reach the creature as it floated near a rocky shoreline.

"There it was. It was an enormous squid," Yosuke Tanaka told AFP on Thursday.

"We didn't see the kinds of agile movements that many fish and marine creatures normally show," he said. "Its tentacles and fins were moving very slowly."

Giant squid are known to live in the waters around Japan, and occasionally wash ashore. But seeing them alive in the wild remains relatively rare.

The squid appeared weak and moved only "very sluggishly," Tanaka said. Pieces of its skin were peeling off from its trunk. ...continue reading