12-year-old boy reels in great white shark off Fort Lauderdale
12-year-old
By VANESSA MEDINA
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (WSVN) — A 12-year-old avid angler captured a great white shark right off the coast of South Florida.
It was quite the day for a family who was visiting Fort Lauderdale from Boston. They went out about a mile off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, when a great white shark, which was about 11-feet long and several hundred pounds, took their bait.
The Keenan family now has quite the tale to tell.
Cambell Keenan loves to fish.
“Well, it was a pretty slow day, we were just catching some fish, and then all of sudden, when they starting reeling it in, it took out drag, and I was like, ‘Is this thing going to pull me in?’ because I was just scared,” he said.
“We had to hold onto him. We had to make sure he wasn’t going to go off the boat,” Colleen Keenan, his mother, said. “He had to hold on to the reel, and he was strapped in and not really, so that was scary.”
Cambell sat and continued to fight with the help of Captain Paul Palucci and David Jackson.
“It took awhile. It took 45 minutes or an hour to catch it,” Palucci said. “We knew we had something pretty substantial from the initial bite it took about 300 yards out.”
“We’re going to fight until the fight was over and just so happened to be a great white,” Jackson said.
“I was so excited for him because he loves fishing so much, and this is like the best you could ever imagine,” Colleen said, “and once we found out it was a great white, it was just, we were through the roof.”
The fishermen reeled the shark to take the line out of its mouth, then to measure its mouth and tag it.
“One hundred thirty inches long, it was about 450 pounds and an absolutely beautiful female,” Palucci said.
They tagged the shark, so experts can study her migration patterns. Then they let her go.
“Feels very accomplishing, I mean, the biggest fish that I ever caught,” Cambell said. “Before this, it was a 25-inch striper. This is a 130-inch great white shark.”
Researchers will now be able to follow where the shark will be going next.
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