Giant squid accidentally caught in Gulf of Mexico

This group of American scientists were studying the diet of sperm whales.

But even so they were taken off guard when this astonishing haul appeared in their net.

Researchers from America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) were shocked discover they had inadvertently caught a rare giant squid as they were trawling through the Gulf of Mexico.

The squid, weighing 103 pounds and measuring 19.5 feet, was caught as the net was dragged more than 1,500 feet underwater.

Scientists, not knowing what they had in the net, hauled it up quickly - only later realising to their horror that the rapid ascent through the changing depths had killed the elusive creature.

Not since 1954, when a giant squid was found floating dead off the Mississippi Delta, has the rare species been spotted in the Gulf of Mexico.

Caught in July, it was preserved and sent to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History for further study.

Scientists onboard were participating in a pilot study on the diets of sperm whales.

'As the trawl net rose out of the water, I could see that we had something big in there ... really big,' Anthony Martinez, a marine mammal scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the chief scientist on the research cruise, said in a statement.

Remnants of giant squid have been found in the stomachs of its predators in the waters of the Gulf, Caribbean and Florida Keys so scientists were aware of their presence in the Gulf.

The squid discovered by the researchers is significant because the species are difficult to catch, leaving much to be learned about them.

Michael Vecchione, director of NOAA's Fisheries Service's National Systematics Laboratory, the squid was an important addition to the worldwide study of squids.

'This find illustrates how little we know about what is swimming around in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico,' he said.

Giant squid, which can be 40 feet (12 metres) long, are usually found in deep-water fisheries, such as off Spain and New Zealand.

'This is the first time one has actually been captured during scientific research in the Gulf of Mexico,' he said.

The joint Noaa-MMS pilot study responsible for the find is part of a two-year, $550,000 study to determine the abundance and diversity of the type of fish and squid that sperm whales seek as prey.