Giant Squid Washed Ashore in Spain Weighs Over 400 Pounds (VIDEO)

Oct 05, 2013 10:38 AM EDT | Matt Mercuro

A large squid washed ashore on a beach in Spain earlier this week, though the beast looks more like a sea monster from a movie.

The squid is 30 feet in length and weighs over 400 pounds according to the Huffington Post.

Locals from the Cantabria community found the squid on La Arena beach on Oct. 1. The squid reportedly belongs to the Architeuthis dux species, which is the largest invertebrates on the planet.

"I felt privileged to be among a few, these animals rarely can be seen, because they live at great depths and very few appear on the coast dead," said Enrique Talledo, a photographer who happened to see the squid wash ashore, to LiveScience. "Its appearance is similar to a sea monster, well-adapted to life in the depths."

Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Science Museum in Tokyo, and his colleagues, captured the first live footage of the giant squid in its natural habitat back in 2012.

The video released by the team showed the creature off the Ogasawara Islands, located 620 miles south of Tokyo at a depth of approximately 2,066 feet, according to the Huffington Post.

A three-man crew aboard a submarine followed the squid down to 2,950 feet.

"It was shining and so beautiful," Kubodera said to AFP. "I was so thrilled when I saw it first hand, but I was confident we would because we rigorously researched the areas we might find it, based on past data."

Currently the squid is at the Maritime Museum of Cantabria, according to El Diario Montanes.

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