This giant squid called Architeuthis dux and measuring 30 feet long washed ashore in the Spanish.
Beachgoers in the Spanish community of Cantabria were taken aback Tuesday when they discovered the carcass of a massive squid that had washed ashore almost completely intact.
Giant squid images are courtesy of Enrique Talledo. Note the size of the eye
The fabled and mysterious Architeuthis Dux, a deep-sea denizen, stood 30 feet tall and weighed nearly 400 pounds.
It was delivered to the Cantabrian Maritime Museum, where it was cleaned and frozen while museum scientists and the government decide what to do with the colossal cephalopod.
(According to El Diario Montanes, there has been some disagreement about ownership, and it is unclear whether the squid will eventually be displayed or dissected for scientific purposes.) According to some reports, it was originally planned to be cremated.)
Regardless, the discovery was remarkable, given that giant squid, despite being the largest invertebrates on the planet, are notoriously elusive and thus difficult to study.
They typically live at depths of 1,000 to 3,000 feet, and the majority of what scientists have learned has come from carcasses that have washed ashore; entire carcasses are rarely found.
Scientists, on the other hand, are tenacious in their pursuit of knowledge. Japanese researchers captured the first known live images of a giant squid in 2004. A team of Japanese researchers brought a live female squid measuring 24 feet to the surface in 2006.
The mysterious creatures, meanwhile, remain steeped in lore.
Architeuthis Dux, which resides in the lightless depths of all of the world’s oceans, is thought to have inspired tales of sea monsters such as the legendary Kraken in the days of ancient mariners.
Architeuthis Dux was one of the vicious creatures in Jules Verne’s classic science fiction novel, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” (First published in 1870; made into a Disney movie in 1954.)
It was represented in other books, too, from Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” to Ian Fleming’s “Dr. No,” to Peter Benchley’s “Beast” (later adapted as a film, “The Beast”).
Many people associate giant squid with vicious battles with deep-diving sperm whales, despite the fact that in these battles, the squid is the prey and the whales are the predators.
Enrique Talledo, who allowed the use of images accompanying this story, photographed the giant squid that washed ashore in Cantabria.
“The animal died at sea and ocean currents brought it to the coast,” Talledo said via email. “The squid was in good condition except one [tentacle] had been broken.”
He remarked the eyes were gigantic and almost lifelike.
That’s not surprising given that the giant squid has the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, according to National Geographic. They can grow to be 10 inches in diameter, almost the size of beach balls, and it’s thought that the size helps the creatures detect objects in their dark environment.
There are only a few museums that have a massive squid carcass on display. The public in Cantabria will hopefully soon be able to admire this remarkable specimen.