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Mako Shark Jason Johnston

April 22, 2014 by  

Mako Shark Jason Johnston, News that a sport-fisherman reeled in – and kept – a potentially record-setting mako shark off the Southern California coast earlier this week is making waves with conservationists, who berated the catch because shark populations are vulnerable to overfishing worldwide.

The female shark caught Monday off Huntington Beach weighed in at just over 1,323 pounds. It was 11 feet long and measured 8 feet around its sizeable midsection, said Kent Williams, a California-certified fish weight master and owner of New Fishall Bait, where the shark was taken for frozen storage.

Jason Johnston, of Mesquite, Texas, caught the massive fish after a 2 1/2-hour battle, the Orange County Register reported.

If the catch is confirmed and meets conditions, it would exceed the 1,221-pound record mako catch made in July 2001 off the coast of Chatham, Mass., said Jack Vitek, world records coordinator for the Florida-based International Game Fish Association. It takes about two months for the association to verify domestic catches, he told the Los Angeles Times.

For now, Williams is keeping the shark in a refrigerated storage unit, stuffed into a 3-by-5-foot metal bin on wheels from which its tail and head spill out. Layered rows of razor-sharp teeth line the shark’s mouth, which was frozen halfway shut Wednesday. A rope was still looped around its dorsal fin.

Under state law, anglers can take two such sharks per outing, although such catches are exceedingly rare, Williams said.

“Ninety-nine out of 100 people who are out fishing for sharks catch this and will not be able to land it. There’s very few of these caught each year, but every time one’s caught, people make a big deal about it,” he told the AP.

On Wednesday, angry callers from as far away as Australia were phoning Williams’ wholesale fish bait business to complain that he was storing the shark there.

Mako Shark Jason Johnston

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