Fishermen pick up dying giant squid

[Slack lines]

Florida fishermen snared a real-life sea monster over the weekend: a giant squid measuring 25 feet in length.

 

"It's really, really, really rare to get giant squids because they're so huge, and live so deep," John Slapcinsky, a collection manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told me. For museum workers and scientists who specialize in giant squids, this specimen is quite the catch.

 

The animal was bobbing in the water when the fisherman chanced upon it on Sunday. They hauled it onto their boat, put it on ice, and brought it to shore. There, they alerted the Florida Fish and Wildlife conservation commission, who called in the Florida Museum of Natural History.

 

"I thought we definitely need to bring it in, because no one’s going to believe us if we don't," Robert Benz, one of the original squid finders, said in a press release. "I didn’t want to leave it out there and just let the sharks eat it."

 

Somewhere along the way, the squid died....................

/cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com