Fisherman speaks out after catching great white shark
A fisherman is speaking out after reeling in a great white shark off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, last weekend.
Shark angler and boat captain Elliot Sudal told ABC News he has been fishing in the waters off Nantucket for over 10 years and has caught and tagged many different sharks before, including sandbar sharks, sand tigers and dusky sharks, but never a great white shark.
"By no means expected this to happen," Sudal said. "Definitely not."
Sudal said he was tracking sharks on the beach over the weekend when something caught his line. He said his teenage apprentice, who was accompanying him that day, helped him steady the fishing rod, but it wasn't until they had reeled in the catch that they realized what it was.
"Out of 2,000 sharks, I caught one great white. This is the first one," Sudal said.
Referring to the process of releasing the animal, he added, "This is the most taboo shark. This is endangered. You have to do everything perfect."
Video of the catch shows Sudal and his apprentice reeling in the great white shark and Sudal running down to the water to climb on top of it and remove the hook.
At one point in the video, Sudal is seen opening the shark's mouth with his bare hands as waves crash into them.
"You have to open the mouth a little bit, get the hook out, and then just do everything you can to get them back safely," Sudal said. "Like, generally, I tag them so we can track them or take a blood sample. But with a shark like this, it's, you know, catch, release."
After removing the hook from the shark's mouth, Sudal and his team were able to drag the great white shark safely back into the water.
"I'm just really, really glad that it just went smoothly and perfectly," Sudal said. "We were able to get her back [into the deeper water], and the shark was safe."
Sudal said he regularly stresses to others the importance of sharks in maintaining a healthy ocean ecosystem.
Shark experts told ABC News previously that warming waters are attracting more sharks to the Eastern seaboard, and more sharks are migrating to new areas to hunt, meaning shark sightings are becoming more frequent.
In May this year, scientists at the New England Aquarium in Boston urged the public to be vigilant after the first white shark sighting of the season was confirmed near Martha's Vineyard. A juvenile white shark was also seen off the coasts of New York and New Jersey that same month.
