Florida has some unusual sea life: manatees, dolphins … cocaine?

A fisherman down there recently reeled in the catch of a lifetime, a 40 to 60 pound bale of white powder.

The fisherman was coming back from a day out when he noticed something floating under a dock in Islamorada, a long, thin island south of Miami, said the Sheriff's Office in Monroe County, Florida, which includes the famously tropical Florida Keys, in a Facebook post.

The fisherman used a gaff — a stick with a hook at the end of it, usually used for boating large fish — and nabbed the big square object.

He hauled it out of the water and into his boat, and cut a corner of the plastic to reveal the flaky stuff.

Then he called the Coast Guard.

A Sheriff's Deputy found that the big package had 25 smaller packages wrapped in clear plastic. He turned them over to the feds.

The cops don't know where the cocaine came from, and they say they're investigating.

A pound of cocaine goes for around $25,000 in Miami, according to Narcotic News. Meaning whoever jettisoned this bundle of marching powder gave up on a $1.25 million payday. They must have had a good reason for ditching it.

Square bales of drugs tossed from airplanes and boats and picked up later are called Square Groupers in Florida.  

This fisherman may have messed up somebody's pick up. But it was almost certainly his catch of the day.

[Cover photo: A happy fisherman (not the guy who reeled in the cocaine). Just a photo from Shutterstock.]