Angry 16-foot predator gets stuck in boat’s net off RI, photo shows. ‘A real bomber’

A boat captain hauling in nets off Rhode Island found himself sharing the deck with a live 16-foot shark — and it was “pissed off.”

The intimidating encounter happened off Block Island, about 50 miles south of Providence, and involved a thresher shark that weighed more than 500 pounds, The Atlantic Shark Institute wrote in a Dec. 29 Facebook post.

“A real bomber,” the institute wrote on Facebook. “She was caught in the net of Captain Chris Brown. … Based on her enormous size she could not be moved by hand.”

It represented a rare opportunity for researchers, so Brown did something unexpected on fishing boats. Instead of harvesting the predator, which is legal, the crew fitted it with a 10-year tracker tag and set her free, the institute reports.

“She swam away from the boat at a robust pace and we are happy to share that we have since detected her several times on our acoustic array near the island, confirming her survival,” the institute said.

“Research opportunities can present themselves at any time, appear quickly and disappear as quickly as they arrived.”

Brown volunteers his services on occasion to marine research projects, and he says it took less than 10 seconds to measure and tag the shark. “The shark is released … pissed off but unharmed,” he wrote on Facebook.

Common thresher sharks are “aggressive predators” that live up to 50 years and can reach lengths of 20 feet, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. However, they are not known to attack humans, experts say.

This story was originally published December 30, 2024 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Angry 16-foot predator gets stuck in boat’s net off RI, photo shows. ‘A real bomber’."