BIG TIGER SHARK CAUGHT IN NET

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30109, 18 April 1963, Page 11

BIG TIGER SHARK CAUGHT IN NET

TAURANGA, April 17. A giant tiger shark was caught in a fishing net by the crew of the 52ft Taurangabased trawler Vanguard, during a tow off Whale Island, about 11 miles out from Whakatane on Sunday. The shark measured seven feet round the girth and was 12ft 2in in length, and its weight was estimated between 8501 b and 9001 b. The Vanguard’s crew, Clive Gaelic, Colin Major and Ron Johnson, saw the shark swimming in the net at the finish of a tow. It made several weak lunges at the net, then swam to the cod end. When landed on the deck

(New Zealand Press Association)

the big fish made little attempt to escape, suggesting that it was partially drowned during the tow. The shark was cut up and thrown overboard, except for the jaws and the liver. When weighed at the trawler jetty at Tauranga, the liver alone tipped 1621 b. During his 14 years of commercial fishing the skipper, Mr Gaelic, said he had seen only four "sizeable” sharks caught up in fishing nets while a trawler was making a tow.

However, on the next tow the Vanguard’s men were surprised to see another big fish caught in the net This time it was a reremai shark, estimated about 3001 b.