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12-foot shark landed on beach
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Splash! Magazine franklin@gulfbreezenews.com
 | | Photo courtesy of the crew of Mother Lode The four-member crew of the See Ya Later II (Carl Osley, Lindsey Stanley, George Schwartz and George Sutton) needed help from another boat, Mother Lode, to catch a mako shark. |
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Gulf Breeze resident Carl Osley grins excitedly as he points out the fresh scratches and bent railing of the See Ya Later II, the boat used to catch a hardy predator. He and three other people hooked something extraordinary not far from shore near Pensacola Beach.
"We were in 20 to 25 feet of water," Osley explained. "If she would've had some depth under her she probably would have sunk the boat."
On April 18 the four member crew of the See Ya Later II, who were cobia fishing approximately 300 to 400 yards from shore near Portofino, came upon a12 foot, six inch mako shark as it was trying to devour a full grown porpoise around 2:30 p.m. The crew of the 23-foot boat hooked the 1,063-pound animal with two strands of 30-pound test line and attempted to bring it topside. The animal reportedly put up quite a fight, and the fishermen required the help of the 45-foot charter boat from Destin named Mother Lode.
"If they hadn't pulled up we would have never gotten her into the boat," Osley said, describing the battle with the massive fish.
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| Submitted Photo
Lindsey Stanley, who helped reel in the mako, is a proven angler. As
of Monday, Stanley was the first place lady angler and the first
place junior angler in the Outcast Cobia
tournament. | |
After securing the animal with two flying gaffs, the anglers were finally able to subdue the shark. The two crews loaded the shark on the Mother Lode and headed to Destin for a weigh in. At first, the crew thought they had landed a world record catch, but later learned their prize was disqualified because of the way it was caught.
Although the catch didn't break any records, it did break a scale in Destin three times before being able to log the shark's weight.
The crew plans to keep the head and teeth as trophies and already consumed their share of shark steaks.
"She was eating porpoises and porpoises eat mullet. It's the life cycle," said female angler Lindsey Stanley, defending what some have called a controversial catch.
Local shark expert Dr. Erich Ritter was surprised to hear of such a large specimen being caught so close to shore. Ritter is apart of the Global Shark Attack File, an organization that provides current and historical data on shark/human interactions, and said there have been previous reports of makos attacking humans in the Gulf of Mexico.
"In the Gulf we had one in March of 2000 in Louisiana, another in May 2004 over in Texas," Ritter wrote in an email. Ritter commented that makos are not typically aggressive toward swimmers and boaters unless provoked.
Makos, which can grow between nine to 13 feet long, were not generally found in this area among the normal populations of bull, tiger, hammerhead and nurse sharks until recently. Environmentalists suggest that overfishing has caused large predators to come closer to shore in search of food. The animals are known to peruse temperate and tropical waters worldwide but usually prefer deeper habitats.
Mako sharks are known for their blistering speed and their ability to leap more than 10 feet out of the water.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' (IUCN) red list of threatened species, which is the world's standard for species conservation, lists the shortfin mako shark as vulnerable but not yet endangered.
Environmentalists suggest that overfishing has caused large predators to come closer to shore in search of food. The animals are known to peruse temperate and tropical waters worldwide but usually prefer deeper habitats.
Mako sharks are known for their blistering speed and their ability to leap more than 10 feet out of the water.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources' (IUCN) red list of threatened species, which is the
world's standard for species conservation, lists the shortfin mako shark as
vulnerable but not yet endangered.
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