Rare Giant Squid Caught Off Canary Islands

[revwardoc]

This one happened right around the very early 20th century. My maternal grandmother is from Graciosa, in the Azores. One day she and a friend were out gathering mussels and sea snails from the rocks. The one they were on jutted far out from the beach and was accessible only at low tide. They didn't pay attention to the tide and were stuck on it when the tide came in. Normally they would've just waded throught thechest deep water to the next high ground but, as they were about to do just that, they spied a very large squid right next to where they would have to wade. She didn't say how big the squid was but apparently it impressed her. They then saw two fisherman in a dory, hailed them and told them about the squid. The fishermen harpooned the squid and rescued my grandmother and her friend from the rock.

She always ended the story with, "If it hadn't been for us, they never would have seen the squid and those sons of bitches didn't even share it with us!"