History of the Giant Squid
The Giant Squid was discovered
in 1861 from a French dispatch Semur, Alecton, that spotted something
unusual in the ocean that seemed to be a sea monster.
On November 2, 1878, the largest giant squid ever measured was discovered
at Timble Tickle. Three fisherman were working not far off shore when they
noticed a mass floating on the ocean they thought was wreckage. They found
a giant squid had run aground. Using their anchor they snagged the still
living body and made it fast to a tree. When the tide went out, the creature
was left high and dry. When the animal died, the fishermen measured it and
chopped it up for dog meat. The body of the squid was twenty feet from tail
to beak. The longer tentacles measured thirty five feet and were tipped with
four inch suckers.
In October 1966, two lighthouse keepers at Danger Point, South Africa, observed
a baby southern right whale under attack from a giant squid. For an hour
and a half, the monster clung to the whale trying to drown it as the whale's
mother watched. "The little whale could stay down for 10 to 12 minutes, then
come up. It would just have enough time to spout - only two or three seconds
- and then down again." The squid finally won and the baby whale was never
seen again.
In 1965, a Soviet whaler watched a battle between a squid and a 40 ton sperm
whale. In this case neither were victorious. The strangled whale was found
floating in the sea with the squid's tentacles wrapped around the whale's
throat. The squid's severed head was found in the whale's stomach.
