Robert Benz spotted the giant squid while fishing with friends Joey Asaro and Paul Peroulakis. They somehow managed to haul the enormous dying squid onto the back of their 23-foot boat.
"I thought we definitely need to bring it in, because no one's going to believe us if we don't," Benz was quoted as saying in the press release. "I didn’t want to leave it out there and just let the sharks eat it."
The huge squid, which later perished, was first brought to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Tequesta Field Laboratory in Palm Beach County. It was later collected by scientists from the University of Florida. It's now the only one of its kind in the collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History.
"It's so rare to get these specimens and they're such deep-water animals that we don't know much about how they live," said John Slapcinsky, Florida Museum malacology collection manager. "This specimen provides an excellent opportunity to learn things about these creatures we couldn’t find out any other way."
It's possible that the giant squid died a natural death. These deep ocean dwellers only reproduce once in their lifetime. After that, they often slowly die. Slapcinsky believes the squid was in that dying state of lethargy when the fishermen found it near the surface in 170 feet of water.
As huge as this squid is, members of the species can grow up to 60 feet long and weigh more than 1,000 pounds. They live a mysterious life in the ocean depths, so not much is known about their reproduction, ecology and life span.
Sightings have inspired myths about sea monsters and other wild tales. It's true that these animals can fight with large sperm whales, as the whales are their common predators.
"This is a pretty massive animal," Slapcinsky said. "It took about six people to move it, and it wasn’t light."
Read more and see more pics and a video at Discovery News
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