New Zealand fishermen catch world's largest squid

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

WELLINGTON (AFP) — A New Zealand fishing boat has landed what is believed to be a world record squid weighing an estimated 450 kilograms (990 pounds).

The gigantic sea creature is about 10 metres (33 feet) long and about 150 kilograms heavier than the next biggest specimen ever found.

The fishing vessel San Aspiring was long lining in the Ross Sea near Antarctica, and the squid was dining on a hooked toothfish when it was hauled from the deep.

"He just appeared as a great, big, dark shape coming out of the depths. He was wrapped around a 30-kilogram toothfish and he was just munching away on it," the ship's captain, John Bennett, told AFP Thursday.

"We stopped hauling the line and got it alongside the ship, and we decided it was really in too poor a...