Fishermen hook nearly 500-kg mako shark at Lockeport Sea Derby

Marshall Bower had been awake all night when hebaitedone last hook and threw it out,whilehe waitedforhis teammates towake up and take over.

"It took off and by then I was just like 'Oh my god,'" Bower said.

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Bower, a lobster fisherman with over a decade of experience, was taking part in the annual Lockeport Sea Derby this weekend when his team hookeda 488-kg shortfinmakoshark.

3.6 metres

The team took over as Bower tended to the boat, just trying to keep up with the beast. Bower said 15 minutes into the fight, the shark leapt out of the water 50 metres in front of the boat.

"The whole thing came out of the water, did a backflip, and then we knew what we were up against," he said.

It took nearly an hour for the team to haul in the 3.6-metre shark.The catch was so large,derby organizers had to find a backhoe and forklift straps to get the shark off the boat. Normal wharf hoists are only capable of lifting 317 kg.

'I was shocked'

According to the federal Species at Risk Public Registry, mako sharks are considereda threatened species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Recreational shark fishing is "catch and release only" except in the case of fishing derbies.

In Nova Scotia, these types of derbies are closely monitored by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who use the derbies as vehicle for data gathering. Anna MacDonnell, a DFOscientist who studies sharks and tuna, was in Lockeport this weekend when Bower's catch was brought to shore.

"I was shocked, I had heard rumours that there was a 1000-poundmakolanded, but I wasn't going to believe anything until I saw it," she said.

Shark at least 20 yearsold

MacDonnellexamined the female shark and estimatedit to be over 20 years old.

There was also a full-sized male porpoise inside in about three different pieces.

Most sharks landed during Nova Scotia's fishing derbies tend to beblue sharks, but the occasionalmakos that are caught tendto be in the 90-135 kg range.

The largest shark ever landed in Nova Scotia was caught in Yarmouthin2004 and weighedjust 2.7kgmore than the one Bower landed this weekend.

Live-tag and release

Derbies can be controversial, butMacDonnellsaidderby participants live-tag and release about 75-80 per cent of the sharks caught, which helpsthe DFO collect valuable data.

"By using citizen science in this way, it creates an opportunity to tag sharks and track their movement at little cost to the department," she said.

MacDonnellsaid the data collected provides the DFO with its first strong estimates of fishing mortality and shark migration in and out of Canadian waters.