Nova Scotia Kayak Fisherman Is Shocked to Discover He Hooked Great White Shark

A bass fisherman in Nova Scotia got a bigger catch than he bargained for last weekend.

Rick Austin was fishing in his kayak around 11 a.m. Sunday on Minas Basin when he hooked a juvenile great white shark. The incredible footage was recorded on Austin’s head-mounted camera. “So I just caught a mackerel,” the footage begins with Austin saying. “There’s something wrong. She’s pretty big,” he says as his line is dragged from one side of the kayak to the other.

Austin then catches a glimpse of the massive predator underwater and audibly gasps. “Oh, Jesus! What the fuck was that? I mean seriously people, that thing is massive.” At that point the shark breaches, arching far out of the water as Austin once again gasps in shock. “It’s a porpoise,” the fisherman assumes. As the hooked predator crosses back under his small kayak, Austin makes a drastic decision. “I’ve gotta snap the line,” he says while reaching for a knife.

In a Facebook post about the incident, Austin boasted of his haul. “No stripers today, but I hooked this. I have my thoughts on what it is but I am getting different opinions.” He later amended the post, reporting that biologists with both the New England Aquarium in Massachusetts, as well as the Department of Integrative Biology at Ontario’s University of Guelph, confirmed the fish was a great white. They estimate that it measured between 6–8 feet and weighed somewhere between 200–250 pounds.

Austin further elaborated on the scenario in the post’s comments, saying that the catch occurred close to the shore where groups of swimmers were gathered. He defended himself against commenters who questioned why he would cut the line. "I've fought many [sharks] and if I was in a bigger boat I would have fought it,” Austin explained. “I'm in a 12-foot-kayak. Would you fight that in a kayak?”