14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few days ago, on Australia Day (that's January 26, in case some of you were wondering), a man and his girlfriend chanced to catch a massive bull shark measuring as much as 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) in length.
The couple, featured together with the shark in the photos accompanying this article, say that they caught the monstrous animal in the waters off the coast of Duranbah, a small town located in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia.
The sheer size of the shark was enough to spook the man
The man who captured this shark, identified as 33-year-old Joel Merchant, makes a living catching fish and selling them to local seafood stores. By the looks of it, sharks count themselves among the fish he relies on for cash.
The man says that, on January 26, he and his girlfriend, 35-year-old Danielle Simpson, set out to inspect a fixed fishing line anchored at a distance of about 2 kilometers (roughly 1.2 miles) from the shoreline.
Much to their surprise, the couple found that a massive shark was caught in this fishing line. They pulled it out of the water and found it to measure 3 meters (about 10 feet) in length and tip the scale at 200 kilograms (440 pounds).
Joel Merchant says that, although it is true that the sheer size of this animal proved more than enough to spook him and his girlfriend, the fact of the matter is that he has caught plenty of other bigger sharks over the years.
“I have no idea how many more I've caught but the biggest one a long time ago was around about 4 meters [approximately 13 feet],” the 33-year-old Australian fisherman told the press in a recent interview, as cited by DM.
The man insists he did nothing wrong when killing this shark
Not long after the news about this impressive catch hit the public, Joel Merchant and his girlfriend Danielle Simpson were accused of having no respect whatsoever for these majestic ocean dwellers. Some even went as far as to call them murderers.
Still, the man insists that he did nothing wrong and that, whatever conservationists and animal rights activists might say, the fact remains that he is legally allowed to catch such fish in Australian waters.
“People are saying ‘You're killing wonderful creatures,’ ‘The ocean's not yours,’ ‘It's one step away from clubbing puppies.’ People are just misinformed and they don't understand just what's out there, they only say what's said in the media by so-called experts,” the man said.
