Giant Squid, 23 Feet Long, Found By Florida Fishermen (VIDEO)

Three fishermen in Stuart, Florida were in for a huge surprise when searching for a catch off Jensen Beach this past weekend. "It was just something that we'd never seen in our lives before," Robert Benz told WPTV.

The three men found a 23-foot-long, 200-pound giant squid floating dead in the Atlantic. Giant squid are known for being an extremely elusive and mysterious creature, and WPTV claims the find was very rare for those waters.

The fishermen took the massive creature to the local commercial docks to see if anyone there had ever seen one. Not surprisingly, they hadn't

While the massive creature was quite the shock, giant squids are actually known to grow much larger. Ellie Van Os, director of education and exhibits for the Florida Oceanographic Society, told TCPalm that they can grow up to 45 feet long and weigh up to a ton.

WATCH (via BoingBoing):

Comments

[CoolBioluminescence]

11:33 AM on 07/12/2011

Dear HuffPost, I just self-published an ebook over at Kindle of Amazon.com entitled: Bobtail, The Shining Squid & the End of Global Warming. It is an illustrative chronicle of Squids, Fishes, Polar Bears, and Natural Spirits inspired by the bioluminescent wonders of Euprymna scolopes, popularly known as the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid. The green story revolves around Bobtail, a shining small squid from the shallows of Hawaii whose brilliant bioluminescent quest of bravery in the abysses of the Pacific and the Atlantic saved his friend: Terry, a frost bear cub trapped in a shrinking iceberg and fulfilled an age old geological prophecy of healing the Arctic and ending global warming. Please do check out Bobtail, he could represent for us and all children our grand fight against global warming. Thanks and the Best of Cheers to all!

[Max Shaw]

01:45 PM on 07/05/2011

Looks even slimier than Ann Coulter.

[getsit]

03:50 PM on 07/05/2011

But far more humane.

[onlythetruthcounts]

07:08 PM on 07/04/2011

Leaky deep water oil wells, or was the poor thing barely hanging on when they caught it?

[thatsNotWhatIHeard]

06:54 PM on 07/04/2011

conservatives blah blah blah democrat liberal blah blah blah blah

[Kemooii Curtson]

12:57 PM on 07/04/2011

Well its definitely a huge kind of a squid I never seen that big in my entire life..Nice!

http://www.ideamarketers.com/?articleid=2341941&CFID=18379244&CFTOKEN=17017901

[bbertaud]

11:51 AM on 07/04/2011

Lemon wedges...and tartar sauce...

[rockgod]

01:00 AM on 07/04/2011

Global warming helps again!

[Trickish Knave]

10:21 PM on 07/04/2011

Are you sure it wasn't video games, or porn, military sonar, old age or just dumb luck?

Nahh, it was global warming.

[Blurryace]

10:38 PM on 07/03/2011

Calamari everybody!

Sweet!

[dwinone]

10:32 PM on 07/03/2011

gross!

[abuckley23]

06:23 PM on 07/03/2011

Another good reason to remain completely terrified of the ocean. On the flipside, mmmmm calamari!

[DogsLieMovie]

04:14 PM on 07/03/2011

Why do giant squid need eight testicles they hardly ever bread.

[Tee1up]

11:56 AM on 07/04/2011

LOL - Good one!

[getsit]

03:51 PM on 07/05/2011

And look at us.

[Greatest Darthfruit]

02:17 PM on 07/03/2011

these poor giant squids are suffering the consequences of all the oil spills around the world, its getting to become very common to find their corpses all around

[zitlight73]

05:33 PM on 07/03/2011

and probably HARP

[Greatest Darthfruit]

10:20 PM on 07/03/2011

I am so glad to find people who have read, and mentioned HAARP as a possible cause for some of the planet climate disturbances

[celticfireusa]

12:52 PM on 07/03/2011

Okay now we want to meet. your mom and dad ...........

[buminthesun421]

12:38 PM on 07/03/2011

Good God..!! The war has begun..!! The giant squid are on ther way..!! Perhaps this is the beginning of the 2012 apocalypse..!! No..!! No..!! A thousand times no..!!

[getsit]

03:53 PM on 07/05/2011

If only. So many rigs, not enough squid.

[DANIELISTICALL]

12:15 PM on 07/03/2011

Aug 9, 2010 12:54 pm US/Eastern
Crabs Suggest Oil Will Stay In Seafood For Years
BARATARIA, La (CBS News) ― BARATARIA, La (CBS News) ― researchers are
closely watching a staple of the seafood industry and primary indicator
of the ecosystem's health: the blue crab.
Weeks ago, before engineers pumped in mud and cement to plug the gusher,
scientists began finding specks of oil in crab larvae plucked from
waters across the Gulf coast.
many of the crab larvae collected have had the distinctive orange oil
droplets, said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of
Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. "In my 42 years
of studying crabs I've never seen this," Perry said.
She wouldn't estimate how much of the crab larvae are contaminated
overall, but said about 40 percent of the area they are known to inhabit has been affected by oil .from the spill

[bogey1]

11:49 PM on 07/03/2011

republican CONservatives will claim the crabs will now be 'pre-buttered' with the oil in the larvae and michelle bachmann will say it is god's will that crabs be born already filled with oil