A 14-pound lobster caught off the coast of Bermuda left fishermen breathless one day after Hurricane Nicole swept through the area last week.
The lobster got caught on a mooring line, which was holding a nearby boat in place.
Matthew Jones, who helped reel in the creature, said his co-worker, Tristan Loescher, didn’t realize what he had until he was swimming beside it with a flashlight.
“He swam out, expecting to find a gray snapper, and found a lobster instead,” Jones told The Huffington Post on Monday. “This was caught totally by accident.”
“Hurricane Nicole blew in some sea monsters... 14lb lobster, caught and released!” reads a caption on a picture that fishing charter company Sanctuary Marine Bermuda posted to Facebook on Saturday.
“Most of the time a 10-pound is the biggest anyone will typically see in their lifetime,” Jones said. “Each leg measured 2 feet, but I do believe they get much bigger.”
The fishermen considered giving the creature, which they identified as a male, to an aquarium. Ultimately, however, they decided to return it to the water.
“It was one of the biggest lobsters we’ve ever seen,” he said. “It’s not typically caught that way so we decided to let it go.”
“It’s a rare specimen,” he said. “We got lucky this time.”
The Bermuda lobster is indeed a beast, but it’s far from the largest lobster ever caught.
Fishermen set a world record in 1977 by catching a 44-pound lobster off Nova Scotia.
Other lobsters have tried to rival that gargantuan’s size, including “Rocky,” a 27-pounder that was caught off the coast of Maine in 2012.