Talk about a big fish—an expedition crew has hauled up—and released—what the team says is the biggest great white shark yet caught.
The 17.9-foot-long (5.5-meter-long) male behemoth was found off Mexico’s Guadalupe Island (map) in fall 2009.
The animal breaks the team’s previous record of 16.8 feet (5.1 meters), set when they caught a female great white named Kimel. (Both records are unofficial and not maintained by a formal organization.)
The new titleholder was named Apache after the dog of Brett McBride, boat captain on the National Geographic Channel show Shark Men. (The National Geographic Channel is part-owned by the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)
Shark Men chronicles the work of scientists and fishers who catch and release great whites in an effort to figure out where the mysterious giants breed and give birth. The scientific team is led by Michael Domeier, president and executive director of the Marine Conservation Science Institute.
The two-ton Apache put up a fight—at one point breaking free from his barbless hook, said expedition leader Chris Fischer.
“The battle with Apache was like nothing we’ve ever dealt with,” Fischer said.
Once on board, the researchers fitted the fish with a satellite-tracking tag, took a blood sample, and released him, watching him vigorously swim away.
(See related pictures: “‘Shark Elevator’ Lifts Great Whites From Sea.”)
“He was all scarred up and had big marks all over him—you could tell he was just a bad-ass shark,” Fischer said.
“It was so impressive and so humbling to be near him.”
