WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Divers in New Zealand made a startling discovery on a beach in Wellington last week: a dead 14-foot-long giant squid.
The ocean creature had washed ashore near Red Rocks on Wellington's southern coastline, according to the New Zealand Herald.
"After we went for a dive, we went back to it and got a tape measure out, and it measured 4.2 meters (13.7 feet) long," diver Daniel Aplin told the newspaper.
Three brothers out for a dive on Saturday stumbled across the monster squid and took pictures that show the animal is much larger than a big man.
Aplin said the squid appeared to be in good shape with no noticeable cause of death.
"It was pretty clean, nothing major on it. There was a scratch on the top of its head, but smaller than a lighter, tiny, wouldn't think that's what killed it," he told the Herald.
Aplin called a friend at the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, who arranged to investigate the death.
Giant squid can grow as large as a bus, according to National Geographic, but the invertebrates are hard to study because of their deep-sea habitat.
The largest ever measured was 59 feet long and weighed almost a ton, according to the science magazine.