A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday.

The squid, weighing an estimated 990 lbs and about 39 feet long, took two hours to land in Antarctic waters, New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said.

Is this dread Cthulhu? Well, no, probably not. At least they didn’t do what these Russian fishermen did when they hauled in a weird catch, and eat the the thing:

However, ufologists and scientists were greatly disappointed when they found out that the fishermen had eaten the monster. They said that they were not scared of the creature so they decided to use it as food. One of the men said that it was the most delicious dish he had ever eaten.

Link via Neatorama.

Despite the weird photo that accompanies the article, there’s evidence that it was nothing more exotic than a guitarfish. But it’s the “we didn’t know what it was…so we ate it” that gets me. If and when we do make contact with alien life, will the first thing we wonder be whether or not they taste good with chips and tartar sauce? “To Serve Man” doesn’t seem so farfetched anymore, now does it?

Anyway, while I’m on the subject of putting you off your lunch, one final link, also from Neatorama: a Japanese sushi restaurant where you can pretend to be a cannibal.