This Scuba Diver Has Been Visiting the Same Fish for 30 Years

Maintaining a decades-long friendship is hard enough. Now, imagine the friend in question is a fish, and you've just about created an impossible scenario for yourself. That is, unless you're 79-year-old Hiroyuki Arakawa, a scuba diver from Japan.

For about three decades now, Arakawa has been visiting Yoriko, an Asian sheepshead wrasse—called a kobudai in Japan—in the waters of Hasama Underwater Park, a couple of hours south of Tokyo. When Arakawa first encountered her, she was injured and unable to catch her own food. Arakawa nursed her back to health by feeding her five crabs every day for nearly 10 days. He believes he's been able to develop an affectionate relationship with the fish thanks to this nurturing.

In the video footage below from Great Big Story, you can witness Arakawa's unlikely friendship—which includes underwater smooches—with the eerily human-looking fish.