Massachusetts Family Catches 483-pound Porbeagle Shark
OutdoorHub Reporters 09.25.15
A Massachusetts man and his two children spent an hour on Sunday reeling in a massive porbeagle shark off the coast of Provincetown, resulting in a catch that just narrowly missed the state record.
According to Fox 25, Mike Evensen took turns bringing the shark in with his daughter Hanna while his nine-year-old son helped pilot the boat. The anglers were eventually able to bring the shark close enough to harpoon it. Back at shore, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries officially weighed the plump porbeagle at 483 pounds, just shy of the current state record.
Had it been a few pounds heavier, Evensen’s shark may have surpassed the 495-pound shark caught by Jesse Siegal in 2011 near Martha’s Vineyard. A few pounds more, and it may have even contested the 507-pound world record landed by Chris Bennett in 1993 off the coast of Scotland. Regardless, the Evensen family said they were very pleased with the catch and now have about 200 pounds of shark meat to share. Porbeagle meat is widely regarded as one of the tastiest of any shark species.
The species is popular among anglers for its fighting ability, but unlike the similarly-shaped mako, it does not jump out of the water. According to veteran angler Mark Turnbull, who caught another porbeagle shark around the same size as Evensen’s, the species is the second-fastest among sharks.
“It goes off like a torpedo and it put up quite a fight so it feels amazing to have reeled it in,” Turnbull told the Mirror after reeling in the shark off the coast of Sunderland, UK earlier this month.
Turnbull added that fighting the shark was like “pulling a car in.”
