For a long time, people rarely got a glimpse of an intact, giant squid. It seems that the situation changes as a dead yet intact giant squid was washed ashore at a beach in South Africa. Actually, humans have never successfully captured a live giant squid, and the dead specimens that wash ashore are usually partial. Salon has more details:
The first-ever video footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat was captured just seven years ago, in 2013.
Adéle Grosse of Cape Town told Live Science that when she saw the large tentacled sea creature on the beach, her initial instinct was to try to save its life.
"At first, I just wanted to get it back into the ocean. [But] on closer observation, one could see that it was dead," Grosse explained. She explained that she and her husband discovered the beached giant squid during a morning walk in Brittania Bay and that they were taken aback by its appearance.
"Oh my word, seeing it at first really took my breath away. Honestly, it looked like a majestic prehistoric animal," Grosse told Live Science. She is unsure how it died, although she noted that "we had big swells the night before, and it was my understanding that the swell washed up this beautiful squid onto the beach in the early hours of the morning. We looked for bite marks or injuries and could not really find anything."
image via wikimedia commons