A five-man fishing crew nearly set a record last weekend by reeling in a whopping 820-pound shark off the coast of New Jersey.
The Missfit, captained by Rob Kurian, caught the near half-ton mako shark in Wilmington Canyon of the Atlantic Ocean -- about 75 miles off the coast of Cape May. Philadelphia native Gary Blakla reeled in the shark after fighting for near an hour. Fred Dirsh Sr., Fred Dirsh Jr. and Paul Tsoukalas were also on the boat and aided the catch, according to shorenewstoday.com.
The shark was weighed in at South Jersey Marina, who posted the above photo to their Facebook page.
The mako fell short of the New Jersey state record of 856 pounds, but undoubtedly toppled the 2014 South Jersey Shark Tournament-winning catch by more than double. That tournament paid out more than $320,000.
Kurian told Shore News Today that is was "by far" the largest catch of his life, and that "[catching] a shark like that was a blessing, especially our first time out."
