A 230kg squid was hauled off the coast of Victoria (Australia) yesterday. Fishing trawler skipper Mr Rang Pene winched up his catch from the ocean floor to find a large mass halfway down the net. The trawler, Zeehaan, was fishing about 40km off the coast of Portlandin Victoria’s west, when it netted the squid on Sunday night in watersmore than 500 metres deep.
Paul McCoy, a Fisheries Research Biologist with Victoria’s Departmentof Primary Industries, said it took 10 men to lift the squid onto astretcher and place it in the freezer, where it will be frozen until a representative from Museum Victoria collects the specimen this week.
Mr McCoy said analysis by the museum would determine the type of squid, its age and, possibly, how it died.
He said the squid was already dead when it was caught.
It’s the third giant squid Mr McCoy has seen in 15 years.
The find comes more than a year after New Zealand trawler skipperJohn Bennett caught what is believed to be the world’s largest squidduring an Antarctic fishing trip.
Scientists in New Zealand last month defrosted the 495kg colossalsquid and determined it was 4.2 metres long, much shorter than earlierpredictions of eight to 10 metres.
