kayaker wrestles shark

 

just saw this on the news.   http://kayakyak.blogspot.com/     video in here under 'Catch and Release'

 

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KABC) --

Some local fishermen nearly turned out to be lunch for a hungry shark, and it was all caught on tape.

Scotty Westgaard and David Saldamando are self-described hard-core kayak anglers. They like to spend their weekends catching and releasing sharks in local waters.

They were reeling in an unknown catch off Santa Barbara's shoreline on Saturday, but when the fish got to the surface, the men realized it was an 8-foot thresher shark.

Instead of tossing it back into the water, they attempted a photo op, grabbing the shark by the tail and tried to hold it on their lap.

The shark wasn't having it and bucked, flipping one of the men into the water. For more than 30 minutes, Saldamando fought with his catch.

Surprisingly he wasn't worried about getting bitten.  "I was more worried about all my gear. I was afraid I lost a reel or rod. I forgot if I tied everything down, so to tell you the truth, I was terrified I lost a bunch of stuff," he said.

The fishermen weren't injured for the most part, and they released the shark.

Earlier in the day, they did catch a much smaller thresher shark, but it was a much more uneventful catch-and-release encounter.

(Copyright ©2011 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Adam Gallash's picture

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Date Joined: 29/11/05

eeek

Thu, 2011-07-14 19:43

That website is sooo slow I can't bring myself to wait to watch it. :(

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changed it

Thu, 2011-07-14 22:00

i've changed it.  this one is without the adverts and crap.  hopefully it's faster.  This story doesn't impress me much.

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Date Joined: 28/05/11

It was on the news tonight ,

Thu, 2011-07-14 21:41

It was on the news tonight , it's not what i'd be doing in a kayak

Shorty's picture

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Date Joined: 10/05/08

Folks in Southern California

Thu, 2011-07-14 22:19

Folks in Southern California have been catching threshers for 30 odd years off Kayaks, they catch them close to shore, normally they hook them in the tail because threshers use the tails to stun their prey,,

 

Apart from falling it for a moment or two it would have been an average day for them but it makes great media footage for the gullible public,threshers have small mouths and are not consided dangerous to man.

 

What really impressed me was he turned his kayak upright and climbed back on whilst holding it,,he did a good job,,