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Cue the 'Jaws' theme: Fishermen are catching 8-foot sharks in the Potomac River
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/js/article_slideshow_v2.js"></SCRIPT>By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 3, 2010; 12:07 AM
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The shark was caught in Cornfield Harbor, Buzz's Marina said on its Web site. (Courtesy: Buzz's Marina)
Excerpt:
"When I first seen it, it was like 'Jaws' -- we need a bigger boat!" Dean said Thursday. "I'm not kidding you. It looked huge. I didn't know how we were gonna get it out. It's my first shark. I've been fishing here a little over 30 years, and it's the first time I've even seen one."
But it wasn't even the only one caught on the river during what has apparently become Shark Week on the Potomac. Thomas Crowder, a commercial fisherman from St. Mary's County, said he and his crew were cutting a net near Tall Timbers on Wednesday when an even bigger bull shark was trapped. "He couldn't swim and breathe, and he drowned," Crowder said. "We kept saying for years that we wanted to catch a shark. . . . And Willy gets one, and then all of the sudden we get one. What are the odds? It's just bizarre."
Crowder measured the shark (8 feet, 3 inches), took a few photos, then dumped it back into the river, its stomach split open to keep it from floating.
Bull sharks -- among the world's most dangerous fish, at least for humans, ranking right up there with great whites and tiger sharks -- are unique in that they can tolerate fresh river water.
But they're almost never spotted in the Potomac or elsewhere around St. Mary's. Ken Kaumeyer, curator of estuarine biology at the Calvert Marine Museum, thinks the last one was in 1973, "when two of them showed up in a town down here in the lower Patuxent."
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Complete text:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090203794.html
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<SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/js/article_slideshow_v2.js"></SCRIPT>By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 3, 2010; 12:07 AM
<DL id=layer1 class=slideOn>
The shark was caught in Cornfield Harbor, Buzz's Marina said on its Web site. (Courtesy: Buzz's Marina)
Excerpt:
"When I first seen it, it was like 'Jaws' -- we need a bigger boat!" Dean said Thursday. "I'm not kidding you. It looked huge. I didn't know how we were gonna get it out. It's my first shark. I've been fishing here a little over 30 years, and it's the first time I've even seen one."
But it wasn't even the only one caught on the river during what has apparently become Shark Week on the Potomac. Thomas Crowder, a commercial fisherman from St. Mary's County, said he and his crew were cutting a net near Tall Timbers on Wednesday when an even bigger bull shark was trapped. "He couldn't swim and breathe, and he drowned," Crowder said. "We kept saying for years that we wanted to catch a shark. . . . And Willy gets one, and then all of the sudden we get one. What are the odds? It's just bizarre."
Crowder measured the shark (8 feet, 3 inches), took a few photos, then dumped it back into the river, its stomach split open to keep it from floating.
Bull sharks -- among the world's most dangerous fish, at least for humans, ranking right up there with great whites and tiger sharks -- are unique in that they can tolerate fresh river water.
But they're almost never spotted in the Potomac or elsewhere around St. Mary's. Ken Kaumeyer, curator of estuarine biology at the Calvert Marine Museum, thinks the last one was in 1973, "when two of them showed up in a town down here in the lower Patuxent."
.../
Complete text:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090203794.html
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