Fisherman Jason Johnston from Texas spent 2 hours landing the 1,323lb female mako shark just outside the Los Angeles harbour “It felt like I had a one-tonne diesel truck at the end of the line, and it wasn’t budging.” he told Orange County Register.
1,323 pound mako shark caught of HB?! Ya ill hang on the sand for bit. twitter.com/KraissKale/sta…
— Kale Kraiss (@KraissKale) June 6, 2013
The shark hunt was being filmed for reality TV show ‘Jim Shockey’s The Professionals’ – a show about big game-hunting.
However, shark conservationists say the threatened shark should have been released back into the sea.
“1,300-pound mako shark capture filmed for reality TV show” latimes.com/local/lanow/la… twitter.com/SharksNewsToda…
— SharkAttackNews (@SharksNewsToday) June 6, 2013
“People should be viewing these sharks as wonderful animals that are important to the ocean and admiring how beautiful they are,” David McGuire of protection group Shark Stewards told The Times.
“The reality is we’re overfishing sharks and this macho big-game attitude should be a relic of the past.”
The shark is being kept in a refrigerated storage unit until the record catch can be officially confirmed.
Did you see this? Big mako shark caught off CA could be record bit.ly/10RaGTd (AP Photo/Courtesy Ray Pacheco) twitter.com/WSOC_TV/status…
— WSOC TV (@WSOC_TV) June 5, 2013
Check out a video below of the dead shark, via Associated Press
Main images:
The jaws of the dead shark (via AP/YouTube)
An average-sized mako shark (via Thinkstock)
