It would produce calamari rings the size of tractor tyres, but it is unlikely that the largest squid ever caught will be served for dinner. Instead the creature, estimated to weigh at least 450kg (71st), almost half the weight of a Mini, will be preserved for the eyes of excited international scientists.

The squid was caught in the Ross Sea off Antarctica three weeks ago by trawlermen aboard the San Aspiring, based in the southern New Zealand town of Timaru.

It was hauled to the surface while eating a Patagonian toothfish that the fishermen had hooked on a long-line.

The squid has yet to be examined by experts, but if initial estimates are correct it is about 10m (33ft) long and 150kg heavier than the next biggest specimen ever found.

It is has been identified as a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) — a species shorter but much heavier than the better-known giant squid.

Steve O’Shea, a squid expert at the Auckland University of Technology, said that the catch far eclipsed the previous largest find — another colossal squid, which weighed 300kg and was found dead in 2003.

“I can assure you that this is going to draw phenomenal interest. It is truly amazing,” Dr O’Shea said. “This squid is a really nasty, aggressive sort of squid, a gelatinous blob with seriously evil arms on it.”

It was transferred to a New Zealand cool store after the arrival of the San Aspiring at her home port this week. The crew said that they stopped hauling in their long-line when they realised that the squid was attached. They spent nearly two hours manoeuvring a net beneath it to haul it aboard.

The catch was announced yesterday by Jim Anderton, the New Zealand Fisheries Minister. Geoff Dolan, a New Zealand ministry observer, was aboard the San Aspiring when the squid was caught.

He said yesterday: “There was a lot of excitement . . . the decision was taken that the chances of survival \ were not good and in the interests of science it should be taken on board.” It is thought to be the most intact of the seven specimens recorded — most of which were found in the stomachs of sperm whales.

The colossal squid was first described in 1925 from two tentacles found in a whale. It has swivelling hooks in the suckers at the tips of its tentacles, suggesting it is an aggressive hunter compared with the giant squid, which has suckers lined with small teeth.

The creatures live in an area from Antarctica to the southern extremities of South America, South Africa and New Zealand.

The New Zealand Government says that few colossal squid have ever been sighted. One was caught by a Soviet trawler’s net in the Ross Sea in 1981, another was found near the surface in 2003 and yet another caught on a long-line in the South Atlantic last year.

The latest catch is expected to be preserved at the Museum of New Zealand in Wellington.

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