Fisherman accidentally lands great white catch

BOSTON: Fisherman Michael Lorello was very surprised when he dragged up a net off the coast of Rhode Island. Inside, a six-foot-long great white shark was showing off its teeth and moving about, very much alive.

Lorello had caught the shark on Sunday morning while squid fishing three-quarters of a mile from Misquamicut Beach. The fish was on the boat for less than 10 minutes, and then quickly released back into the water.

Lorello’s photos and videos of the brief catch on Facebook have had over one million views. One of the videos shows the shark thrashing on board the boat as crew members approach it to send it back into the Atlantic.

“I’ve been fishing for 20 years,” Lorello said, “but I’ve never heard of something like this.”

He said the shark “flopped around” as crew members figured out how to release it. They used a crane attached to the boat to lift the shark back into the water, as a man yelled “plenty of life in him”, narrating one of several Facebook videos.

He did say great white shark populations are higher in Massachusetts, where there is a large population of seals.

Up in Massachusetts, a second shark was not so lucky on Saturday.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy posted photos on its Facebook page of a dead nine-foot great white shark caught off the coast of Scituate.