It was the type of nightmare born from far too many viewings of "Jaws." Except this happened while the anglers were wide-awake.
A group of fishermen were 30 miles southeast of Atlantic City on Sunday when they encountered a great white shark. The men watched for 10 horrific/fascinating minutes as the estimated 14-foot most-feared maneater circled their boat.
A plus 700-pound bluefin tuna caught off Boynton Beach earlier this week could get the anglers who caught it “canned.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Kim Amendola confirmed that the fish has been confiscated by law enforcement and that her agency is investigating the fishy business surrounding the tuna in cooperation with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
An angler reeling in a halibut had his fish stolen from right under him—by a killer whale. The fish was almost at the surface when the orca appeared and chomped its tail. Then the whale closed in and made off with the halibut.
A German angler more than fulfilled his wife’s request that he bring home some halibut this week when he pulled a 427-pound halibut from the Barents Sea, off the coast of Norway.
Christian Johannsen, 45, of North Friesland, Germany, was fishing with friends when he hooked into something big. Four hours later and with the help of two buddies, he landed what turned out to be an eight-foot long, 427-pound goliath of a halibut.
“Every fisher dreams about this, it’s like winning the lottery,” Johannsen told The Local.
Johannsen’s fish is a monster but it's still pretty far from the world record: a 540-pound halibut was caught off the Norwegian coast.
Instead it was enjoyed as fish tacos on a Baja beach.
Last week, angler Kevin Shiotani landed an amberjack near Cerralvo Island in the Sea of Cortez after a grueling 25-minute battle that most of the Tailhunter International Sportfishing crew estimated to weigh at least 135 pounds, according to Pete Thomas Outdoors. Had the fish been officially weighed it might have threatened the International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record amberjack caught off Japan in 2010. That fish weighed a whopping 156 pounds.
Word is that no one on the boat was thinking record at the time of the catch.
Michael Eisele of Kiel Germany caught this enormous 103-pound cod while fishing off the coast of Norway. If the catch is approved by the International Game Fish Association, it will break the current world record (which has stood for 44 years) by about 5 pounds.
Eisele battled the fish for half an hour before two of his friends finally helped him haul it into the boat, according to the Daily Mail. The cod measured more than 5 feet in length.
Commercial fishermen in Western Australia accidentally netted this 13-foot great white shark just 100 meters off a popular beach earlier this week. The big shark died in the net because it was unable to move water over its gills.
Cheyne fisher Dumpy Wheatcroft (yeah, apparently his first name is Dumpy) told thewest.com that tourists flocked to watch the shark being loaded on to a forklift.
Fishermen off the coast of County Waterford (Ireland) were surprised to trawl up a scorpionfish last week. Surprised because the fish is native to the warm waters of the Mediterranean and not the ice-chilled deep waters of the UK.
The police officer who shot at a great white in an effort to save a swimmer has gone into hiding fearing a backlash from animal rights activists.
Last week award winning filmmaker Adam Strange was fatally attacked by a great white shark estimated at 14 feet in length off Muriwai Beach, New Zealand. The Sunday Star-Times reports that lifeguards and police rushed to the scene of the attack where they did everything they could to stop the attack.
A report from the University of Florida' International Shark Attack File says that there were more shark attacks last year than there have been in a decade.
But, don't rush out to get a bigger boat just yet. There were 53 attacks nationally last year and only one was fatal. Florida led the U.S. with 26 attacks. Hawaii had 10 attacks, followed by California and South Carolina with five each, North Carolina with two and one each in Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Puerto Rico. One attack in California was fatal.