20 ft, 2000lb. Great white caught as bycatch in the Sea of Cortez.
When two fishermen off the coast of Mexico pulled up a nearly 2,000 pound, 20 foot long shark they were at first amazed. That quickly turned to, “what are we going to do?”
Grind TV reports the pair were fishing in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez on Sunday when they netted the giant, dead great white shark. Before they saw the beast, they had thought they were bringing up a great load of smaller fish. Not so. Grind TV has more on their thoughts and what they had to do next:
“We were amazed and immediately realized that we had a huge, dead, great white shark, and then we thought what are we going to do?,” Guadalupe, one of the fishermen, said in an interview with Pisces Sportfishing, which is located in the Baja California resort city of Cabo San Lucas. The other fisherman was named Baltazar.
The fishermen, whose skiff measures 22 feet and is powered by a 75-horsepower outboard, required an hour to tow the carcass two miles to the coast. About 50 people helped drag the behemoth onto dry sand. Milenio News reported the length of the fish to be six meters, or 19.8 feet.
From there Grind TV reports Pisces stating it is unclear what happened to the shark. Scientists were seeking out the giant in the hopes of obtaining samples.
On average, adult great white sharks weigh between 1,500 to more than 2,000 pounds and can reach between 11 to 13 feet long. Grind TV reports that the Gulf area is thought to be a nursery for the sharks. Shark expert Christopher Lowe of Southern California confirmed great whites are common in this area, although it is unusual one should be so large.
The Belmont Shore Patch reports there is some controversy over the reported length of this shark. If it is in fact 19.8 feet, it would be one of the longest of the species ever caught, according to the Mileno News. It also states that some would think the shark would weigh more at that length.
