“What’s your business, Moby Dick?”: Rare giant squid with a beak the size of a fist and huge eye that normally wanders 3,000 feet below the sea surface washes up on the Cape Town coast just months after another surfaced six miles away
- A giant squid has been found dead on Scarborough Beach near Cape Town
- Twitter user Tim Dee has posted videos and photos showing the colorful octopus, which has a beak the size of a fist and a huge eye
- The giant squid is one of the largest known invertebrates — with a maximum size of about 39 to 43 feet for females and 33 feet for males
- The sea creatures typically live at depths of 980 to 3,280 feet below the sea surface
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A rare giant squid was discovered dead on a beach in Cape Town, South Africa, months after another washed up six miles away.
Twitter user Tim Dee, who found the strange-looking sea creature on Scarborough beach on Tuesday, shared photos and videos online showing the colorful squid’s huge eye.
“Giant squid species destroyed on Scarborough beach this morning,” he wrote. “What’s it to you, Moby Dick?”
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Twitter user Tim Dee, who found the strange-looking sea creature (above) on Scarborough beach on Tuesday, has shared photos and videos online showing the colorful squid’s huge eye
The sea creature (above), which looks like something Salvador Dali would have painted, was examined by a marine biologist
Dee’s video shows a marine biologist peeling back flesh to reveal the squid’s giant beak, which he uses for hunting and fishing.
The sea creature, which looks like something Salvador Dali would have painted, is also known for having a very large eye — typically up to 11 inches in diameter with a 3.5-inch pupil. Larger eyes are better at detecting light, including bioluminescent light, which is hard to find in the ocean depths.
The previous octopus was found just a few kilometers offshore and was reportedly in much worse condition.
Giant squid is one of the largest known invertebrates – although its size has sometimes been exaggerated.
Dee’s video shows a marine biologist peeling back flesh (above) to reveal the squid’s giant beak, which he uses for hunting and fishing
Known as Architeuthis dux, the squid has a mantle (or torso), eight arms, and two longer tentacles. Its arms and tentacles make up a large percentage of its length
Recent estimates put the maximum size at around 39 to 43 feet for females and 33 feet for males, from the rear flippers to the top of the two long tentacles.
Claims that they reach 66 feet have not been scientifically proven.
Known as Architeuthis dux, the squid has a mantle (or torso), eight arms, and two longer tentacles. Its arms and tentacles make up a large percentage of its length.
The squid also capture prey with their tentacles, grasping it with serrated suction rings, and then dragging it to their beak.
The giant squid also have tiny fins near the back of their mantles that they use to move – they are propelled by drawing water through the mantle cavity and pushing it through the siphon.
These creatures typically live at depths of 980 to 3,280 feet below the ocean’s surface.
They can breathe with two large gills in the mantle cavity.
The first images of a giant squid in its natural habitat were taken in 2004 by a team of Japanese researchers.
The unique sea creatures are usually found near continental and island slopes from the North Atlantic, particularly Newfoundland, Norway, the northern British Isles, Spain and the oceanic islands of Azores and Madeira, to the South Atlantic around southern Africa and the North Pacific near Japan and the southwest Pacific around New Zealand and Australia.
The only known predators of adult giant squid are sperm whales, pilot whales, southern sleeper sharks, and sometimes killer whales.
According to Newsweek, samples from Scarborough’s carcass will be collected and taken to the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town for study.