Pescador atrapa y libera inmenso tiburón tigre de 13 pies en las costas de la Florida

Un pescador que se dedica a atrapar y liberar tiburones de la costa de Florida agarró y marcó un enorme tiburón tigre frente a la costa de Sanibel.

Elliot Sudal, con licencia para investigar tiburones como conservacionista marino, estaba pescando en la costa de Boca Grande el domingo.

Durante 25 horas, él y su compañero de pesca no habían visto un solo tiburón en un lugar que, según dice, es famoso por los tiburones gigantes, así que hicieron las maletas y se dirigieron a Sanibel.

Sudal dijo en su publicación en Instagram que paró en un banco de arena a limpiarse cuando decidió usar su última bonita y en cinco minutos picó algo. «Fue la carrera más pesada e imparable, más consistente de mi vida, ni siquiera disminuyendo la velocidad al máximo», dijo Sudal.

Tardó más de cinco horas en enrollarlo y, finalmente, pudo etiquetarlo en el agua cerca del banco de arena y soltarlo de manera segura.

Sudal dijo que era un tiburón tigre macho, de 13 pies de largo y que pesaba alrededor de 1,100 libras.

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Here’s the story on the Tiger: I set out with my buddy @claytonjennings1 Sunday morning on the boat to Boca Grande pass, a spot notorious for giant sharks. This time of year it’s loaded with tarpon, which they feed on. I had a cooler full of fresh Bonita and we got up there and set some baits. 25 hours go by… not one bite. We’re incredibly exhausted and frustrated, my thoughts were I had somehow left some soap in my cooler and it ruined my baits. We leave and head back to Sanibel, but pull up by a sandbar to jump in and wash off, get on solid ground for a second. I had one Bonita left that had already been soaking for 12 hours, figured what the heck why not and floated it off by the pass. Five minutes later, it gets smoked. It was the heaviest, most consistently unstoppable run of my life, not even slowing down at full drag. This wasn’t my heaviest setup either, it was an 80 rigged more for boat stuff. Getting down to the last 100 feet of line, it became apparent this wasn’t happening from the beach, and we jump in the boat and slam it in reverse, backing down on it marlin style. After about 5 hours and being dragged around many miles, attempting to slow it down, and realizing what it was, we return to the sandbar. I’ve never dealt with a shark this size, and in my experience they are much easier to tag, blood sample and remove the hook when in shallow water. Plus the shark was almost as big as the boat. I finished the battle on the sand, keeping the shark in 2’ of water on a sandbar at the edge of the pass, so the flowing current would keep water moving over his gills. It was a male tiger shark, 13 feet 2 inches in length with a girth measurement of 81”. The weight calculations put that at around 1100 pounds! I tagged it, got a blood and fin sample, and swam it off into the pass where it took off like a champ. Unreal experience, largest shark I’ve ever caught, or even heard of being landed here. Tiger sharks are a rare species to see here, and it’s a great sign at how strong the shark populations are returning after the red tide this summer. And a huge shoutout to captain @claytonjennings1, couldn’t have done it without you man, what a day 💥 #sharkresearch

A post shared by Elliot Sudal (@acksharks) on Apr 30, 2019 at 5:06pm PDT

«Lo etiqueté, obtuve una muestra de sangre y de aletas, y me bañé en el pase, donde despegó como un campeón», dijo Sudal. «Experiencia irreal, el tiburón más grande que jamás haya capturado, o incluso escuchado de andar por estas aguas».

Sudal participa en el Programa Nacional de Marcado de Predadores del Servicio de Pesquerías Marinas con la Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica, cuyo objetivo es aprender más sobre los tiburones para que sus hábitats puedan ser protegidos, informó Fox 13.