BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A routine fishing trip recently turned into an "out of this world" find for a retired Brevard County boat captain.

Capt. David Stokes knows the waters off Ponce Inlet very well — the lifelong resident is more comfortable on water than he is on land.

"I had a charter boat out here for 30 years," Stokes said. "It's in my blood I guess. Big game tuna, marlin, sailfish."

Even though he's now retired, he still heads out on the Atlantic Ocean looking for a big catch.

On January 30, he set out on a typical trip 30 miles out with some friends.

Right after catching a wahoo, the group saw something unusual floating on the water and began recording it with a phone.

Stokes is a self-professed space geek — and knew right away what it was.

SpaceX had just performed a successful launch abort test January 19 from down the coast at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The item floating on the water? It was an intact SpaceX Dragon capsule hatch.

"The way it was floating, I knew there was a lot of weight connected to it," he says.

But there was more: The two drogue parachutes were underwater, and it took an effort to pull them aboard.

Stokes says it's the most unusual catch he's made in his career.

He says the group has contacted SpaceX about the find but haven't heard back.

He does have one hope though.

"Maybe get Elon Musk to sign it for us (laughs) or maybe get SpaceX to come by finally and inspect it," Stokes says.

SpaceX has a debris recovery hotline at 1-866-623-0234.

Spectrum News 13's legal team says that because of maritime law, anything found floating in the ocean is fair game to keep.