Massachusetts fisherman reels in great white, then snags hook from its toothy mouth

Billerica, Mass. (AP) — Elliot Sudal didn’t need a bigger boat, but he did need to find a way to get a hook out of a shark’s mouth.

Sudal, a veteran angler and boat captain, reeled in a 9-foot great white shark on June 7 on Nantucket. White sharks are a protected species in the U.S. and must be released immediately when accidentally caught.

That presents a problem for a fisherman because the white shark is a formidable apex predator best known for the 1975 movie Jaws. Sudal, who caught the shark while fishing from shore, used his encounter to demonstrate how to respond to such a situation.

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Sudal posted a video of himself removing the hook to his social media accounts. In the video, Sudal climbs onto the back of the shark, secures it in the surf, and removes the hook from its mouth.

By the end of the short video, the shark is back in the water.

White sharks typically have about 300 teeth arranged into five rows, so speed was key.

“Hooks out and back on her way in 15 seconds, not sure how to do it better,” Sudal wrote in an Instagram post that included a video of the shark release.