Paddleboarders encounter giant squid in South Africa.
The giant squid is probably the rarest ocean creature of them all. So rare in fact, it's only been seen in the wild a handful of times and photographed there even less.
Which makes this close encounter James Taylor and his friends had all the more incredible. Watch as the squid grabs a hold of his paddleboard.
As you might have already guessed from the footage, the squid wasn't doing so well when these humans encountered it. Earth Touch News Network reports Taylor was able to put a rope around the squid and take it back to the beach.
"It was quite badly injured and barely alive when I caught it," Taylor later wrote in a Facebook post. "It didn't even really try and get away, so we ended up putting it out of its misery when we got to the beach. It felt like the best thing to do at the time."
Researchers who saw photos and videos Taylor and his friends later agreed the squid probably wouldn't have made it. The scientific value was also why Taylor chose to bring the animal in. Mike Vecchione of the Smithsonian Museum told Earth News Network the squid may have been injured in a predator attack such as a sperm whale.
Whatever the case may be, Taylor and his friends definitely had an encounter with an animal not many others can claim!
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