Mon May 26, 8:38 AM ET



MELBOURNE, Australia - Australian fishermen have hauled up a 20-foot-long giant squid off the country's southeastern coast.


Skipper Rangi Pene said Monday that the 500-pound squid was already dead when it was caught in a trawler's nets Sunday night in waters more than 1,640 feet deep.

Paul McCoy, a fisheries research biologist, said it took 10 men to lift the squid onto a stretcher and place it in a storage freezer in the city of Portland. A museum will collect it this week.

McCoy said an analysis by the museum would determine the type of squid, its age and possibly how it died.