10 Biggest Sharks Ever Caught

Numerous movies have been made on sharks and how they are blood-sucking villians, but in reality, they are far more interesting and gentle creatures. If scientists are to be believed, these sharks have been around for over 400 million years!

Sharks have more than 500 species and they come in all different shapes and sizes and colours. They have different diets and behaviours. Considered ocean’s top predators, these sharks can see very well even in the darkest places of the ocean and possess incredible night vision. This is because the back of a shark’s eyeball has a reflective layer of tissue called tapetum which helps them see well with little or no light.

It comes as a shocking surprise that sharks can go without eating for a whole six weeks! One such record was made by a swell shark, which did not eat for a massive 15 months! When a shark flips upside down, they go into a state of trance which is known as tonic immobility. This is the reason why a sawfish gets flipped over when scientists work on them in water.

10. Prince Edward Island Shark

Weight: 20 feet in length
Year It Was Caught: 1983
Location: Canada’s Prince Edward Island

A great white shark was caught off Canada’s Prince Edward Island in 1983. This shark was listed as one of the world’s five most legendary sharks by the Discovery Channel during that year. At 20-plus feet, it was and remains one of the largest white sharks ever measured.

Research suggests that the famous P.E.I shark, a female that was hauled up dead in a net by David McKendrick, was not even an adult, but a ‘teenager’ with plenty of growing years ahead. The research also says that white sharks grow more slowly than previously thought, and do not mature until about the age of 30.

A skeletal study of the P.E.I shark, one of a very small number of large great whites ever caught or spotted off Canada’s Maritime Province, determined its age to be about 20 years old. Canadian researchers said that if the shark had lived longer, it would have grown even bigger as 20 was just a teenager in shark years.

The P.E.I shark was buried in a gravel pit, but later recovered so its skeleton could be collected for science.

9. Thresher Shark

Weight: 1,250 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 2007
Location: Cornwall Coast

The largest Thresher shark ever recorded has been caught by a trawler off the Cornwall coast. The 1,250 lbs shark measured over 15 feet in length and was caught by a trawler fishing for squid and John Dory in the English Channel near Land’s End peninsula.

Roger Nowell, the skipper of FV Imogen, spotted a shoal of scad near the bottom on his echo sounder and shot his trawl. The monster shark was among the haul. The female was very stout and may have been pregnant or feeding heavily to store energy in its liver.

8. World Record Hammerhead Shark

Weight: 1,280 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 2006
Location: Gulf of Mexico

Captain Dennis, a fishing guide in Port Charlotte, caught the 1,280-pound, 14.5-foot hammerhead over nearly six hours, during which the shark dragged his 23-foot skiff about 12 miles out to sea. He followed this mighty shark for 12 exhausting miles, so far, the land was no longer visible, and cell phones no longer worked.

When it was revealed the catch of a lifetime was about 50 years old and had been pregnant with 55 pups, a firestorm erupted and Dennis was the target of harsh criticism on Internet message boards from people around the globe.

7. Sixgilled Shark

Weight: 1,298 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 2002
Location: United Kingdom

According to the International Game Fish Association, the 1,298 feet sea creature was caught by Clemens Rump in 2002, off Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean near the U.K. The sixgrilled shark is often called the cow shark. It can grow to 16 feet in length.

Believed to be descendants of sharks that inhabited Earth’s waters even before pterodactyls and T. rexes roamed its lands, bluntnose sixgills spend most of their time at profound depths, sometimes swimming to 4,500 feet below the ocean’s surface.

This predilection for deep water makes bluntnose sixgills a difficult bunch to study. 

6. Giant Mako Shark

Weight: 1,323 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 2013
Location:  Southern California

A group of anglers from Texas, Colorado, and California hooked a colossal fish off Southern California in 2013. After a long struggle, they reeled in a shortfin mako shark that they say tipped the scale at 1,323.5 pounds (600 kilograms).

The shark is 11 feet (3.3 meters) long and 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter. The massive mako was caught by a team of professional hunters and fishers who produce reality television for the Outdoor Channel. The three-day, deep-sea excursion was being filmed for the show Jim Shockey’s The Professionals, a program that aims to document the lives of Outdoor Channel crew.

The hunters donated the shark’s body for further scientific research. Under California law, anyone with a fishing license may catch up to two sharks per day. There is no restriction on the shark’s weight. A typical adult mako shark is about 10 feet long and weighs 300 pounds. The previous record holder, a 1,221-pounder, was hooked in 2001 off the coast of Chatham, Mass.

5. Tiger Shark

Weight: 1,780 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 1964
Location: South Carolina

On Saturday, June 13, 1964, onlookers who had gathered at the Cherry Grove fishing pier watched in disbelief as the biggest tiger shark they’d ever seen slowly swam into view. Local angler, Walter Maxwell, had fought it for hours, bringing the shark so close he could almost touch it—and then, just as the monster fish reached the pier, the line broke.

Maxwell vowed to those who had gathered that he would stay on the pier night and day, if necessary, to get another chance at the giant fish. After almost five hours of fighting the fish, Maxwell got the tiger shark next to the pier for the last time.

His friends were able to secure it with a gaff and heavy rope while waiting for a wrecker to hoist it onto a flatbed truck. It was Monday morning before the fish could be put on a certified scale where it weighed in at 1,780 pounds, 13 feet, 10.5 inches long, shattering the International Game Fish Association World Record by 300 pounds.

4. Mexico’s Great White Shark

Weight: 2,000 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 2012
Location: Sea of Cortez

Two Mexican fisherman hauled in a monster great white shark measuring nearly 20 feet long — among the largest ever recorded — and weighing close to 2,000 pounds, an extremely rare catch for that size.

The shark, caught by Sea of Cortez near Guaymas, was dead when it was brought to the surface by the commercial fishermen, Guadalupe and Baltazar, who thought they had merely netted a large school of much smaller fish.

However, they were shocked to discover the massive beast — already dead when it was brought to the surface — and towed the shark using their 22-foot skiff with a 75-horsepower outboard, reaching the shore two miles away nearly an hour later.

According to news reports, it took 50 people to haul the shark onto the sand. Reportedly the shark didn’t go to waste either. Residents of the coastal village butchered the beast of the sea, providing shark steaks for many.

3. Mundus’ Great White Shark

Weight: 4,500 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 1964
Location: 1964

According to a website dedicated, the biggest shark Frank Mundus, a legendary captain with a habit of catching giant sea creatures, ever caught was a 4,500 lbs. great white which we caught commercially by harpoon in 1964 to him. The shark was more than 20 feet long.

He is a shark-hunter, believed by many — particularly Mundus — to be the inspiration for Quint, the shark-obsessed waterman played by Robert Shaw in the movie “Jaws.” The shark, caught on a 150-pound test tackle normally used to catch giant tuna, was said to be 800 pounds heavier than the previous record for a great white shark that was caught, as listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Mundus is Montauk’s most famous shark killer. The book and movie ″Jaws,″ about a massive shark terrorizing a Long Island town, were based in part on Mundus’ experiences.

Mundus harpooned a 4,500-pound shark in 1964, the largest ever on the East Coast, but sharks that are harpooned are not considered for world’s records. They called that shark ″Big Daddy.″

2. Phillip Island’s Great White Shark

Weight: 5,085 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 1970s
Location: Philip Island

Data needs to be confirmed, but it’s possible that this large great white shark caught off Phillip Island in the 1970’s weighs an amazing 5,085 lbs, making it possibly the biggest shark ever caught. It was 21 feet long.

1. El Monstruo

Weight: Over 7,000 lbs
Year It Was Caught: 1945
Location: Cuba

As legend has it, in 1945, six fishermen embarked from the seaside town of Cojimar in Cuba to find the underwater monster that was devouring their fish. The crew took off in a small boat, armed only with ropes and harpoons. After they hooked the creature, they spent the night and following day battling it in an epic struggle.

When they arrived at the port, the townspeople flocked to witness the catch: a 21-foot, 7,000-pound great white shark, forever remembered as “El Monstruo de Cojimar.” Someone even took a photo of the beast.

Now, 70 years later, a Discovery Channel documentary crew says it has confirmed the tale, making El Monstruo the largest great white ever caught — only 90 miles off the Florida coast.