A fishing crew in New Jersey has reeled in a 12ft, 926lb shortfin mako shark, which officials say is the biggest shark catch in the history of the state.
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The crew was fishing about 100 miles off the coast in an area known as the Hudson Canyon on Saturday. The shark was weighed and displayed in Brielle later that day.
Kevin Gerrity, captain of the boat, said he and his men did not think they could catch the shark. It took more than two hours to pull it aboard.
The owner of the boat, Dave Bender, told Patch.com Gerrity had “waited 35 years for today’s moment.
“Every night offshore for the last 10 years, [Gerrity] puts out a shark rod, and every night I tell the customers, ‘We ain’t gonna catch no mako.’ Kevin’s passion and persistence has paid off today for a fish of a lifetime.”
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife said the previous record weight for a shark caught off the state coastline was an 880lb tiger shark caught off Cape May in 1988.
According to the International Game Fish Association, the biggest shortfin mako ever caught was landed off the coast of Massachusetts in 2001, and weighed 1,221lbs.
The Hudson Canyon is populated by a number of large fish, and has produced a number of record-setting catches.
