Melbourn - Australian fishermen have hauled up a six-metre-long giant squid off the country's southeastern coast.

Skipper Rangi Pene says the 225-kilogram squid was already dead when it was caught in a trawler's nets Sunday night in waters more than 500 metres 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 says an analysis by the museum will determine the exact type of squid, its age and possibly how it died.