800px-Whiteshark-TGoss1

When you’re fishing, you never know quite what you’re going to catch. I caught an eel once, and that was weird. But an eel is a lot smaller than the great white shark four teenagers recently hooked off the coast of Florida, near Port Everglades.

Your support powers solutions-focused climate reporting — keeping it free for everyone. All donations DOUBLED for a limited time. Give now in under 45 seconds.
Secure · Tax deductible · Takes 45 Seconds

Stories like this don’t tell themselves.

Make others like it possible. Your support powers solutions-focused climate reporting — keeping it free for everyone. Give now in under 45 seconds.
Secure · Tax deductible · Takes 45 Seconds

The teens, all baseball players at a community college, were aboard the boat Hooked Up for a six-hour trip. They were catching some of the stuff they expected to catch: mahi-mahi, king mackerel, bonito, and black-fin tuna. But about four hours into the trip, something rather larger swam up to their line. Something 12 feet long and 1,000 pounds.

They fought the shark for about two hours, everyone on the boat taking turns. Then the hook found its way out of the shark’s mouth and stuck him in his side. They finally just cut the thing loose, as understandably no one wanted to reach down and deal with the hook. So the four teenagers are presumably resting comfortably, telling their exciting story, and the shark, sadly, is swimming around with a hook in its side.