1,300-pound shark could be record

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Talk about a monster catch.


A group of fishermen hauled in a 12-foot-long, 1,300-plus-pound shortfin mako shark Monday off the coast of Huntington Beach that KTLA reported could be a record-setting catch.

Jason Johnston from Mesquite, Texas, said his group hooked the shark about 15 miles offshore. It took more than two hours and a quarter-mile of line to reel it in, he said.

“It’s unreal. This thing is definitely a killing machine,” Johnston said. “Any wrong step and I could have went out of the boat and to the bottom of the ocean."

The shark was being taken to a weigh yard in Gardena to be certified by a weigh master. It was expected to be donated to a research organization for study.

As his group waited to hear whether the shark was indeed a record breaker, Johnston said the fishermen planned to hit the water again Tuesday.

It's not the first big mako caught off the coast in recent months. Last summer, a group of fishermen hooked an 800-pound shark off the coast of Marina del Rey. That shark was so big, in fact, that it couldn't be hauled aboard the boat and had to be towed to the landing by the tail.