At first glance, the viral video looked like something straight out of a wildlife wrestling match – or a deleted scene from Jaws, which was shot in Massachusetts.
It shows a man straddling a great white shark on a Nantucket beach. Spectators watching in disbelief. The shark thrashing in the shallows as the angler grabbed hold.
To many viewers online, it appeared to be a case of animal cruelty.
The reality was much different.
The man in the video was veteran shark angler and boat captain Elliot Sudal, who had accidentally hooked a young great white shark while surf fishing on Nantucket’s south shore near Nobadeer Beach. According to Sudal, the shark measured between 8.5 and 9 feet long and weighed roughly 300 pounds. It was the first great white he had encountered in more than a decade of fishing the island’s waters.
“By no means expected this to happen,” Sudal told ABC News after the incident. “Definitely not.”
Video of the encounter quickly spread across social media, showing Sudal pulling the shark into shallow water, climbing on top of it, and removing the hook before dragging it back into the ocean by its tail. To the untrained eye, the scene looked chaotic. But according to Sudal, every move was intended to minimize stress on the animal and ensure a quick release. The entire process reportedly took about 15 seconds.
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“I was excited and stressed,” Sudal said. “It was just crazy. I was hugging it.”
Sudal has spent years catching, tagging, and researching sharks around Nantucket, logging more than 1,000 catches of species including sandbar, dusky, and sand tiger sharks. Despite that experience, he described the great white encounter as humbling and unforgettable.
The incident also serves as a reminder that Nantucket and nearby Cape Cod remain among the most active great white shark habitats on the East Coast. This time, however, the story wasn’t about a shark attack. It was about an accidental catch.
“Out of 2,000 sharks, I caught one great white,” Sudal sad. “This is the first one. This is the most taboo shark. This is endangered. You have to do everything perfect. You have to open the mouth a little bit, get the hook out, and then just do everything you can to get them back safely. Like, generally, I tag them so we can track them or take a blood sample. But with a shark like this, it’s, you know, catch, release.”
Luckily, after a struggle, things went as well as they could – given the drastic circumstances.
“I’m just really, really glad that it just went smoothly and perfectly,” Sudal said. “We were able to get her back [into the deeper water], and the shark was safe.”
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