2 Sharks Caught At Mouth Of Potomac River
SCOTLAND, Md. (WJZ) -- Jaws on the Eastern Shore of Maryland? Well, not quite. But two large bull sharks are reeled in by the same fisherman.
Jessica Kartalija has this amazing fish tale about the ones that didn't get away.
The two bull sharks were caught just off the shore in St. Mary's County.
Watermen Richard Richie and Greg Dean need a forklift to show off their catch.
"Well, they're big," a little boy said.
Eight-year-old Nicholas isn't kidding. The bull sharks are more than eight feet long and more than 200 pounds with mouths full of teeth.
"It's really scary because... it's just scary," Nicholas said.
That's because he knows the whole story behind the unusual shark catch.
Richie and Dean have a huge fish trap called a pound net in the Potomac. They mostly catch bait for crabbers.
"As we pull up to the net, we started to pull it up and there they were," said Richie.
One bull shark had already died from being in the net, the other sprang to life, sparking a 'gonna need a bigger boat' moment.
"Maybe we bit off more than we can chew right this minute," Dean said.
Here's the thing about their net: it's just offshore from the popular swimming beach at Point Lookout State Park.
"It's close enough for a shark to swim over and bite somebody," said Richie.
That was the reaction of several swimmers when shown pictures of the sharks.
"I'm not terribly familiar with the Potomac or the Chesapeake, but that's pretty damn impressive," beachgoer Tom Carmody said.
"I think there's more here than any of us realize," said Dean.
State biologists say these sharks have turned up in lakes and rivers before. But it's important to remember there have not been any reported shark attacks here in Maryland to date.
Swimmers are being urged not to swim into that part of the Potomac at night.
