Marine Corps veteran and passionate fisherman Jeff Fangman is making headlines across the country this week for catching a great white shark off the coast of Camp Pendleton in October.
Fangman and his family had just moved out to California for his wife's job (she's an active-duty Marine), when they decided to spend the day at the beach.
Fangman wrote on the website SharksOnTheSand.com that he was fishing from the sand when he felt an unusual tug on his fishing line:
"Words cant explain the emotions we were feeling. Here we were on a simple outing to catch something. I'm telling my wife, this is more than likely a GREAT WHITE.
As I'm working it slowly in to shallower water I get to a point where I feel safe putting the rod in the holder and running for the leader. Instinct told me to do what I always do instead, run down to the shark while reeling. It hits me (GREAT WHITE): shock...
From there it was shock and awe, and the race started to get it back swimming."
According to the blog Pete Thomas Outdoors, juvenile great white sharks (like the one caught and released by Fangman) feed in the coastal waters off Southern California:
They're sometimes caught unintentionally by commercial gillnet fishermen, but they're rarely hooked by anglers.
Very few have been hooked from the beach, and in recent years a few have been hooked from piers.
Fortunately, Fangman was aware that white sharks are a protected species and was able to help get the predator back into its domain, and watched it swim off.
