A fisherman has described how he reeled in a monster 1500lbs shark, the largest ever caught in Europe. Ben Bond, 26, spent 90 minutes struggling to bring in the 25ft long sixgill shark off the coast of Ireland.
The shark was eventually bought alongside the 40ft long boat Ben was fishing from and it was more than half the length. Ben said: “It was absolutely massive.
“When it first took my bait it felt like a very heavyweight. I thought it would be really hard to lift it off the bottom but the real fight was when it was in mid-water.
“After about 75 minutes I saw it near the surface and my eyes nearly popped out.
“Its tail was at one end of the boat and its head was over halfway up the boat.
“It had a big set of jaws.”
It was impossible to heave the specimen on board but experienced boat skipper Luke Aston used the recognised formula and measuring its length and two metre girth to calculate its weight.
Luke said the shark was at least 1,500lbs – 107st – which makes it the biggest ever caught in not only the British Isles but also in Europe.
