Kayak fisherman towed for two hours by hammerhead shark
Digital Reporter
Saturday, March 29, 2014, 12:52 PM -
Kayak fisherman Adam Fisk has a "one that got away" story - but not only is it about an actual hammerhead shark, he has video evidence to back it up.
The 22-year-old Florida student was out fishing off Florida's Atlantic coast when he hooked the 3.3 m beast, and ended up being taken on a joyride that lasted for two hours.
The five-minute video was posted to the YouTube channel of the extreme fishing group he belongs to, and says the fish dragged him 19 km.
Skip ahead to the 3:45 mark for when Fisk had the presence of mind to dunk his GoPro camera into the water to actually catch a glimpse of the shark.
Although Fisk told Reuters there were a couple of scary moments when the shark abruptly changed course, he was unharmed in the ordeal.
But wildlife experts say the sheer length of time the shark was hooked and fighting was a huge amount of stress for the animal.
"That’s quite a long time, especially for a species like a hammerhead that has to swim to breathe," John Carlson, a research biologist at the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Palm Beach Post.
As entertaining as the video was, with the kind of stress that ride was, it may have ended badly for the shark after it was finally released: Carlson told the Post that sharks observed fighting for more than 85 minutes have all died.
RELATED: Read about eight weird kinds of sharks.
