Andrew is a post-doctoral researcher in North Carolina focused on population and conservation genetics in hydrothermal vent communities.
If you ever find yourself pulling in a hand-deployed longline in murky water and the line gets heavy all of a sudden, the best thing to do is not to get on your knees and pull as hard as you can while leaning slightly overboard. Even though you might think the line is merely caught on something, you may have actually hooked a six foot blacktip shark that isn’t moving very much. While trying to untangle the line, you may inadvertently launch a six foot blacktip shark towards your face… teeth-first.
~WhySharksMatter
Here is what this oopsie might look like. Just change the small sandbar shark with a six foot blacktip in your head.
The real tragedy here is that beard.
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That photo is from last year’s Great Darwin Beard Challenge, but yeah, it got pretty bad.
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Would this be from the same trip where you ended up as bycatch?
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Nope, before that trip.
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That explains the look on your face – little did you know where this lifestyle would lead you.
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Indeed. That picture is actually of the first sandbar shark I ever caught, which also explains the giddy look.
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