Great shark hunt

Press, 26 June 1978, Page 8

Great shark hunt

NZPA New York Dozens of Long Island fishermen vied on Saturday! to catch a great white shark; that escaped after a 14-hour battle the day before. Among them were John; Sweetman, and his six-man! shark-hunting crew aboard; the 12-metre boat, Ebb Tide.!’ They had reported harpooning a huge shark on Friday 1 morning, and then being dragged by the fish a few. kilonietres through the At-1 lantic Ocean off the eastern! tip of Long Island. The crew described the fish as 7.5 to 9 metres long! and weighing as much as! 2000 kg. They said their boat) had at times been pulled' backwards at a speed of skm /h. I But. after 12 hours of; work on Saturday, the Ebb! Tide and its crew returned. I — sharkless — to its moor-i |ing- ■ Carl Darenberg, a spokes-;

man for the Montauk Basin < marina where the Ebb Tide is moored, said that for the 1 I first time in several weeks,; fall charter boats from the . marina were out fishing. He i estimated that a total of 60;' icharter fishing boats in the!: !Montauk area had gone out lon the shark hunt. Mr Darenberg said that lone man had reported by; !radio that he had harpooned! a large shark from his sport 1 fishing boat about 60km; .south of Montauk Point. Mr: Darenberg said the man had: told him the harppon was: iattached to a keg bouy, and; I that the shark pulled the! i buoy below the ocean sur-|l jface and disappeared. The pilot of a plane: owned by the Montauk ma-i rina reported spotting and I taking photographs of what; (he said was a giant shark! i shortly before noon on Sat-’ urday. I The shark affair gained!

quick and widespread media! coverage, and some sceptics! have questioned whether the) i fish was a hoax. But Mike 1 iAlbrunda, whose boat Mun-] i tauk was next to the Ebbj I Tide on Friday, said the; j shark was the real thing “Its the biggest man-eater: I've ever seen there," he! said. “I've seen every kind of shark and I never thought: there was one so big in the whole ocean.” Mr Sweetman said that: the fish had turned his boat ..round three times on Friday. “like a piece of soap in, . a bathtub . .We were, nothing to the fish. He just 'played with us.” Finally, the fish broke the o.scm 740 kg-test nylon line! where it was connected to a : steel cable, and slipped I away. ! The largest shark ever: ! caught off Montauk weighed) 2000 kg and was caught in! 11963.