Giant sea creature a real monster find

THE remains of a 40ft octopus or squid that washed ashore in Chile are to be sent to France for further scientific study.

Villagers were shocked by the giant lump of slimy flesh found lying on their beach near Puerto Montt. Some said it was a Hollywood sea monster. “We’d never seen such a strange specimen,” said Elsa Cabrera, an expert at the Centre for Cetacean Conservation.

Photographs of the carcass showed a pink-grey blob on the beach resembling a squashed or decaying elephant. European zoologists said it appears to be similar to a specimen found in Florida in 1896 that was named “octopus giganteus.”

The common octopus of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean occasionally reaches 10ft, while the giant octopus of the Pacific Ocean can reach a diameter of up to 30ft or more. The largest giant squid ever found washed up in New Zealand more than 100 years ago. It was 60ft from tip to tail and weighed a ton.