Belcher Lab🐊🦈🐊🦈🐊

About that big tiger shark in Pawleys Island I posted about earlier today. Here's the story from Jacob Nelson: Hi Ed, This is getting a whole lot more attention then I thought it would. Our normal family adventures aren't so common to everyone else. Before I get in to the details, my family and I are by no means professionals, we just happened to get lucky. We love the outdoors and have high respect for our ocean. Same to be said with the sharks we catch, we respect them not fear them. Anyways, I am the angler that caught this Tiger shark on Saturday with the help of my wife, two boys and some local bystanders. It was caught on rod and reel. Specifically a Makaira 80w SEa and a Steadfast Rod from Mike Goings. For bait we had a barracuda head. The bait was dropped via kayak at 300-400 yds from the beach. All my hooks we use for catching sharks are non offset and have the barb crimped or removed for easier release and to mitigate the amount of time these animals are in shallow water. Once in the surf the shark was quickly unhooked and tagged. We always have a variety of tools to assist in the unhooking process to include channel locks, a standard dehooker and as last resort and pair of bolt cutters to cut the hook in half. (Cutting the hook in half, instead of cutting the line, and having the hooking remain in the sharks mouth). The tag was a NOAA tag as part of the Cooperative Shark Tagging Program (CSTP). CSTP is a collaborative effort between recreational anglers, like our family, commercial fishing, and NOAA Fisheries to learn more about the life history of Atlantic Sharks. CSTP is strictly volunteer, we recieve nothing other than the satisfaction that we know we are helping the scientific community... Once tagged, I waited for the next wave to come in to assist getting the shark deeper in the water, I then guided it about waist deep where it could swim off on its own. Resulting in a successful tag and release of the beautiful Tiger Shark. I estimate it being around 10 foot in length and based off of the charts NOAA have, around 385 lbs. I hope those around to witness this in person, will have a lifetime memory like our family sure will!