Incredible Video Shows Enormous Injured Squid Wrapping Tentacles Around Man’s Paddleboard

James Taylor, a 39-year-old South African, was paddleboarding off the coast of Melkbosstrand, South Africa, when tentacles reached out of the water and wrapped themselves around his board. The culprit? Oh, just a giant squid.

He posted the moment on Facebook and wrote: “Found an injured giant squid just behind the waves in Melkboss a while back and decided to catch it and take it to the beach."

After a plethora of questions and a fair share of criticism, Taylor responded to a comment by saying he had contacted the local aquarium but they were on holiday. 

Instead “we dissected it and took a bunch of videos and photos that we later sent to them so that they could at least have a look at what we found. They sent these on to a professor who has been studying giant squid in South Africa for the last 15 years and he was very excited about the find. He told me the next day that he has only seen five wash up on South African shores since he started his studies. He confirmed that it was a mature male giant squid."

On average, giant squid weigh around 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and reach 10 meters (33 feet) in length – nearly the size of a bus! The largest of these elusive underwater beasts ever found weighed almost a ton and was 18 meters (59 feet) in length.