The ocean is filled with all manner of amazing and mesmerising creatures. Even though most of life on planet Earth lives underwater, and the sea is the most diverse ecosystem, we sometimes take for granted what an incredible abundance of species live beneath the waves.

However, that's what makes our fleeting encounters with undersea life all the more special, as this next clip proves. If you want to know what kind of creature could be swimming beneath you, then check out the following video, which shows a surfer having a very close experience with a giant squid!

The video of the incident was filmed off the coast of South Africa and posted to Instagram by user James Taylor (@ejamestaylor), where it quickly managed to accrue over 68,000 views and thousands of comments.

James later told Thrillist that he and two friends had been paddleboarding near Melkbosstrand - approximately 22 miles from Cape Town - when the injured squid, who appeared to have been wounded in an encounter with another predator, swam up to him. In the video, Taylor can be seen hoisting the animal up with a length of rope, before it wrapped its tentacles around his board.

Taylor later stated: "Unfortunately it was very badly injured ... Had lost a couple of tentacles and had some bite marks on the upper part of its body so it didn't make it. It was already very week when we caught it [sic]." He added that he and his friends "wanted to try get it to the beach for research purposes before it got more damaged by seals in the area," but were unable to help very much.

This isn't the first time we've written about an amazing chance encounter with marine life. Check out this article we penned about the amazing experience a bunch of canoe paddlers had when they saw a humpback whale breach the surface of the water.

The ocean is filled with all manner of amazing and mesmerising creatures. Even though most of life on planet Earth lives underwater, and the sea is the most diverse ecosystem, we sometimes take for granted what an incredible abundance of species live beneath the waves.

However, that's what makes our fleeting encounters with undersea life all the more special, as this next clip proves. If you want to know what kind of creature could be swimming beneath you, then check out the following video, which shows a surfer having a very close experience with a giant squid!

The video of the incident was filmed off the coast of South Africa and posted to Instagram by user James Taylor (@ejamestaylor), where it quickly managed to accrue over 68,000 views and thousands of comments.

James later told Thrillist that he and two friends had been paddleboarding near Melkbosstrand - approximately 22 miles from Cape Town - when the injured squid, who appeared to have been wounded in an encounter with another predator, swam up to him. In the video, Taylor can be seen hoisting the animal up with a length of rope, before it wrapped its tentacles around his board.

Taylor later stated: "Unfortunately it was very badly injured ... Had lost a couple of tentacles and had some bite marks on the upper part of its body so it didn't make it. It was already very week when we caught it [sic]." He added that he and his friends "wanted to try get it to the beach for research purposes before it got more damaged by seals in the area," but were unable to help very much.

This isn't the first time we've written about an amazing chance encounter with marine life. Check out this article we penned about the amazing experience a bunch of canoe paddlers had when they saw a humpback whale breach the surface of the water.