The Zuiyō-maru Carcass
A Japanese trawler hauled up a rotting body that looked like a long-necked sea monster.
What was reported
On 25 April 1977, the Japanese fishing trawler Zuiyō-maru netted a huge, badly decomposed body off the coast of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was about ten metres long, with what looked like a long neck, a small head and four fins.
Fearing it would spoil their catch, the crew photographed it, took a few samples of fibres and threw it back. In Japan it was celebrated as a possible surviving plesiosaur.
Explanations offered
Tests on the fibres found a protein typical of sharks. Scientists think it was a basking shark: as one decays, its jaw and lower fins fall away, leaving a small 'head' on a long 'neck', a pattern seen in several sea-monster carcasses.
- When
- 25 April 1977
- Where
- Off Christchurch, New Zealand
- Witnesses
- The crew of a Japanese trawler
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.