A group of three people was kayaking in the town of Melkbosstrand along the southwestern coast of South Africa when they unexpectedly discovered a “huge” creature beneath the water. This creature had a very long body and swam close to the surface, even extending its tentacles onto their boat.
However, what was even more surprising was that this creature was severely injured, with a large patch of its skin peeled away. Noticing this, one man in the group tied a rope to the creature to pull it ashore.
This is a giant squid and it has been severely injured.
It turned out that this creature was a giant squid (scientific name: Architeuthis). It had been gravely wounded and had drifted along the coast for a long time in a dying state. Therefore, when it saw the boat, it instinctively tried to cling to it.
This was a male squid, as when it was pulled ashore, it released sperm as a final act to ensure its lineage, hoping that the sperm would meet with a nearby female’s eggs. Its injuries could have been caused by a shark or whale prior to this encounter.
The giant squid is a large cephalopod that lives in the deep ocean regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific. They have eight short tentacles and two long tentacles, measuring from 10 to 13 meters in length. The natural enemy of the giant squid is the sperm whale (scientific name: Physeter macrocephalus).
