For what is believed to be the first time in history, a great white shark was reeled in by beach fishermen in Alabama.
The two men, both fishing guides from Pensacola, Fla., were aiding clients in Orange Beach and had been at it for several hours in the early morning hours of March 6 when what was obviously a big catch triggered a line around 4 a.m.
“The Tiagra 130 (fishing reel) has a clicker that you could hear from a million miles away and when I heard it going off, I thought that’s the big reel,” Coastal Worldwide fishing guide Dylan Weir told WALA/Gray News about his monumental catch.
Weir’s partner Blaine Kenny told WALA/Gray News that at first they thought it was a tiger shark on the line, but as they hefted it closer to land, they figured out what they had hooked.
Once they realized it was a great white, they say they released it as quickly as they could, needing only about a minute to free it from the line.
Great white sharks are not often seen along the Alabama coast, Dr. Marcus Drymon of Mississippi State University told WALA/Gray News.
He theorized that cooler temperatures in the water could have lured him closer than usual to land.
“This is a very rare event and maybe, if those guys continue to fish from the beach for the next several years, [they still might] never catch another one like it,” he said.
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