Enormous great white shark hauled by Mexican fishermen

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
4/20/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Shark measures nearly 20 feet and weighing a ton

An enormous great white shark, nearly 20 feet long and weighing a ton has been pulled out of the Sea of Cortez by two commercial fishermen. Both fishermen were very surprised, and the sheer size of the shark makes it among the longest ever recorded. The fishermen who thought they had merely scored a large haul of much smaller fish as they hoisted up their net.

Both fishermen were very surprised, and the sheer size of the shark makes it among the longest ever recorded. The fishermen who thought they had merely scored a large haul of much smaller fish as they hoisted up their net.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "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?," one of the fishermen said in an interview with Pisces Sportfishing, located in the Baja California resort city of Cabo San Lucas.

The shark was dead when it was brought to the surface. The fishermen, whose skiff measures only 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 were needed to drag the behemoth onto dry sand. Milenio News reported the length of the fish to be 19.8 feet.

"Guadalupe and Baltazar swore they had never seen a fish this big before in their lives," the Pisces blog stated. "Even though on March 13 of this year, some of their fellow fishermen had also caught a great white, which had weighed 990 pounds."

In that case, it remains unclear what the fishermen did with the shark. Scientists were hoping to obtain tissue samples for study.

Adult white sharks were once believed to be infrequent visitors to the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California. It's now believed that parts of the gulf serve as a sort-of "nursery" for the species.

"While it's unusual that fishermen will land sharks that large, the occurrence of large adult white sharks is not uncommon for Gulf waters," Christopher Lowe, a Southern California white shark expert says. "In fact, several satellite tagged sharks from California and Guadalupe Island [west of Baja California] have traveled into the gulf. So we know they are there."

Adult white sharks are believed to prey largely on Humboldt squid and sea lions.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Keywords: Mexico, great white sharks, Gulf of Cortez, commercial fishing

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