Hours after dropping bait into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday morning, anglers Trey Linder and Steve Callaway hauled in an 11-foot-8-inch tiger shark off Pensacola’s West End Beach.
They tagged the shark for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research, then posed with the slick-skinned predator, prying open its jaws to reveal its rows of comb-shaped teeth before releasing it back into the water.
The whole process, which started at 5 a.m., took about three minutes, the anglers wrote in a Facebook post, adding that “experience is key.”
If there’s any time of year anglers are likely to catch a tiger shark, it’s now — summer is when coastal sharks come closer inland in search of warmer waters to give birth, NOAA shark biologist John Carlson said last year.
Tiger sharks are the third most commonly caught coastal shark in the United States, according to the Florida Museum. In the Gulf, they are the most common shark species found in both coastal and offshore waters.
The species can grow up to 18 feet in length and weigh as much as 2,000 pounds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Tiger sharks rank just behind great whites in the number of recorded shark bites on humans worldwide. Though attacks are rare, the sharks — whose diet includes large prey such as sea turtles — can sometimes mistake people on surf or wakeboards for food.
