20 January 2023 , 06:15
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A great white shark has been caught off the coast of Florida – by a 12-year-old boy.
Campbell Keenan was out angling with his family when he landed the 11-foot predator.
Campbell, from Boston, was on a family trip to Fort Lauderdale. They were approximately a mile from the Florida coast when the female great white took the bait.
It took around an hour for Campbell to reel in the fish, assisted by David Jackson and captain Paul Palucci, which was measured at 130 inches and over 200kg.
Having removed the line from the shark's mouth, it was tagged and released back into the water.
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“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,” Campbell said.
Campbell Keenan and his mother Colleen (Colleen Keenan)Colleen Keenan, Campbell's mother, admitted her first concern was her son going overboard.
“We had to hold onto him,” she said. “We had to make sure he wasn’t going to go off the boat.
“He had to hold on to the reel, and he was strapped in and not really, so that was scary.”
Palucci added: “It took a while. It took 45 minutes or an hour to catch it.
The 200kg shark was tagged before being released so that researchers can monitor its migratory habits (Colleen Keenan/Youtube)“We knew we had something pretty substantial from the initial bite it took about 300 yards out.”
Colleen added that she was excited for Campbell because he “loves fishing so much” and “this is like the best you could ever imagine.”
She described the family as being “through the roof” when they realised what they had caught.
The tagging of the shark will allow researchers to study its migratory patterns.
“Feels very accomplishing, I mean, the biggest fish that I ever caught,” Campbell said. “Before this, it was a 25-inch striper. This is a 130-inch great white shark.”
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