WASHINGTON – A New Jersey angler set a new Maryland record for landing a 266- pound hammerhead shark earlier this month.
Scott Cusick, of Jackson, N.J., caught the specimen while participating in the White Marlin Open on Aug. 8 in Ocean City, Md. He and his crew of the “Milling Around” were fishing near a pod of pilot whales in search of tuna and marlin.
His catch wins the largest shark category, which comes with a prize of $5,150.
The fish put up a “tough, tuna-like fight for about 45 minutes,” according to a Maryland Department of Natural Resources release.
“We were sure it was a bigeye tuna. We had been marking tuna on the sonar and boats nearby were hooked up, fighting bigeyes,” Cusick tells the DNR. “It wasn’t until we saw the color and length of the fish, that we knew it was a shark.”
The hammerhead beats the previous record of a 254-pound fish caught by Jamie Gill over Massey’s Canyon in 2009.
Check out this footage of the crew bringing the shark back to shore:
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