Great White Shark Caught, Released Off Port Everglades Inlet
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Sharks off Broward beaches have made headlines over the last month or so. Thousands of black tip, lemon and hammerhead sharks have been spotted heading North on their annual migration.
On Tuesday, there was a different kind of shark spotted just south of Ft. Lauderdale which makes you want to cue up the music from the movie "Jaws."
Anglers aboard Taco's Hooked Up Sportfishing charter boat Hooked Up piloted by Captain Greg McCauley 'hooked' a Great White, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
McCauley said the shark, which he guessed was about 13 and a half feet long and probably weighed between 800 to 1,000 pounds, took a butterflied bonito off a kite line about 180 feet from the Port Everglades Inlet, or less than a mile and a quarter from shore.
Harry Andro, Josh Shailer and Jared and Tanner Elliott, who all play baseball for Tallahassee Community College, and a father of one of the students fought the shark for two hours before they were able to get it close enough to the boat to see what they had. That's when they all realized it was Great White, a rarity in Florida waters - at least up until recently.
Capt. Taco Perez, who owns the Fort Lauderdale charter boat, told CBS4 he heard from a fellow charter boat captain in Miami-Dade that a Great White was hooked off Key Biscayne a few days ago and another one was spotted off Jacksonville five days ago. He believes more of this top predator of the seas will be spotted farther south as the fishing pattern continues to change.
At one point during the fight, McCauley said the hook pulled free from the shark's mouth and lodge in a pectoral (side) fin. After they were able to get it close to boat, the shark was photographed and then released in good shape.
The Sun-Sentinel contributed to this report.
