Amassive mako shark has been caught on camera jumping out of the ocean and landing on the desk of a fishing boat.
On November 5, Churchys Charter NZ, overseen by Ryan Churches, had taken five passengers out in his chartered fishing vessel off the coast of Whitianga, New Zealand.
However, after being hooked on one of the lines, the mako shark came soaring out of the water and crashed onto the deck.
“We were fighting it normally and it was jumping around. I told the customers, ‘If it jumps in the boat get out of the way’,” Churches told the New Zealand Herald.
“It just so happened that about 30 seconds later it jumped on the top of the boat. It was crazy. We were all watching the rod and the line was going out to the side of the boat and it changed direction suddenly … it just happened to jump at the same time and we got a hell of a fright.”
There are two types of mako sharks, shortfin and longfin. They are both found in temperate waters worldwide.
They can grow to around 13-feet long and are classified as endangered by the IUCN Red List. They are known for leaping high out of the water when hooked on a fishing line in an attempt to escape, which has made them a popular game fish, as anglers seek the spectacular sight.
“Once it is hooked, it is to trying to free itself from the hook, trying to break the line for an excess of tension, biting it, etc., performing quick bursts against (swimming far and into deep waters) and towards the origin (jumping) of that tension to which it is subjected, the fishing cane,” Marc Aquino Baleytó, an oceanologist at Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas in La Paz, Mexico, told Newsweek.
The shark, which was estimated to be around about eight or nine feet in length and weighing about 330 pounds, spent around two minutes thrashing around on the boat’s bow.
“I was trying to figure out ways of how to get it off if it didn’t slide off. I was thinking what the f*** do we do? But it all worked out. The customers reacted better than what a lot of people would have. The cameras were out, but they probably didn’t realize the danger we could have been in,” Churches said.
“We were lucky it was on the front of the boat and we had windscreens and hard tops blocking it. We were lucky it didn’t come into the back of the boat otherwise it could have a wildly different story.”
The damage caused by this behavior to the shark depends on its size, the height of the jump, the weight and the area of impact, Baleytó said.
“They are very strong animals, and the only way to be seriously injured is to receive a strong blow to the head… in fact, this is how fishermen traditionally ‘calm them down’ to avoid accidents once they have been caught,” he said.
While an uncommon occurrence, mako sharks landing on fishing vessels have been seen before, with one notable example being a huge mako that nearly landed on the fishermen themselves off the coast of Maine last month.
The New Zealand mako in the video got away safely, managing to free itself from the boat.
“We dropped the anchor down a little bit because it seemed to be holding it in place [on the boat]. He went absolutely bonkers again and pushed himself through the bow rail and slid back into the water,” Churches said.
