A Fisherman Caught a Great White Shark on Nantucket

A Massachusetts fisherman recently reeled in an unexpected catch: an eight-foot long great white shark. But the angler didn’t leave the shark stranded on the beach. Instead, he hauled it to the shallows, pulled the hook from its mouth, and sent it back out to deeper water.

In a very 2026 twist, the moment was captured on video and uploaded to Instagram, where it quickly went viral.

Boat captain and shark fisherman Elliot Sudal, 37, was casting off of a beach on the south shore of Nantucket, an island 30 miles south of Cape Cod, on June 7, when he hooked the great white. Nathan Skerritt, a friend, was also present, and helped Sudal bring the shark on shore.

“I’m just one of the boys that happened to be there and got to reel the beauty in,” Skerritt told Outside.

A Frantic Moment on the Beach

The waters off of Cape Cod have, in recent years, become an popular destination for great white sharks. A 2023 study suggests that Cape Cod is now the largest seasonal meeting spot on the planet for the sharks.

The shark that Sudal hooked was likely a juvenile, due to its size. Mature great white sharks can grow to between 11 and 20 feet long.

The video shows Skerritt wrestling the great white into shallower water by the tail fin, before straddling it and using a pair of pliers to remove the hook from its mouth. He then pushed the shark back out to sea, where it swam away.

“Hooks out, and back on her way in 15 seconds,” Sudal wrote in the post’s caption. “Not sure how to do it better.”

Great white sharks are a protected species, and Rachel Hager, the public affairs officer for the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Outside in an email that intentionally catching a great white is illegal.

“But they are occasionally caught by accident in a variety of fisheries for other species,” she explained.

Hager said regulations are currently in place to minimize accidental catches, but NOAA also grants permits to fisherman to catch the sharks.

“In the Atlantic, recreational fishermen who hold the appropriate permits are allowed to intentionally fish for white sharks with rod and reel gear, as long as they release the shark immediately without removing the shark from the water and without further harming the shark,” Hager added.

Sudal told a local news outlet The Nantucket Current that he has been shark fishing on the shores of Nantucket since 2013. That year he wrestled a large shark to shore, and video of that encounter also generated a glut of attention (he let that shark go, too). Sudal told The Nantucket Current that the June 7 encounter was the first time he’s ever caught a great white shark, and that it was unintentional.

“Caught 1000-plus sandbars and hundreds of [dusky sharks] off the beach, tagged most of them along the way,” he said. “By no means was I targeting that white, you can’t control what picks up your bait.”

Sudal said he realized that the shark was a great white when he saw its spotted pectoral fin, and only hauled it in further to release it.

“Understood the gravity of the situation, and had to get her released safely and quickly,” he told The Current. “Amazing creature, humbled to be blessed with the opportunity to interact with one. Had a great crew helping with everything, she swam off strong, not something we will ever forget.”

Releasing the Shark Was the Right Call

Tanner Mansell is an expert shark diver and guide who takes tourists to see sharks off the coast of Florida. In 2020, he and a fellow guide were convicted of a felony—and later pardoned by President Trump—for releasing endangered sharks from a fishing line.

He told Outside that the shark in Sudal’s video appeared to be an eight-foot long juvenile. Although Mansell doesn’t agree with fishing for sharks off-shore, because the bait brings sharks closer to beaches where people are swimming, he believes Sudal made the right decisions to free the shark.

Mansell explained that releasing the animal so quickly was crucial, because sharks die very quickly when out of the water.

“The speed of this is the most important aspect of it,” Mansell said. “He didn’t wait around to take a photo or something, he got on it. This guy knew what he was doing.”

Mansell explained that certain shark species can die simply from being reeled in, even if not pulled out of the water, because of the stress their fight response puts on their body. A 2023 study found that nearly 50 percent of blacktip sharks, for example, will die during catch-and-release. Another study suggests great hammerheads die more than 90 percent of the time.

“Hammerheads’ muscles demand huge amounts of oxygen,” Mansell said. “When they don’t get enough oxygen to meet that demand, they’re able to get reeled in. So to fight, they’ll switch over to anaerobic metabolism, which exerts large amounts of lactic acid and carbon dioxide into their body. So the shark might be alive and moving, but when you release them, that lactic acid accumulation in their bloodstream becomes acidic, muscle functions deteriorate, organ systems start to fail. Even if they swim away, there’s a high likelihood they’ll die.”

Mansell said that it’s incredibly rare to ‘accidentally’ catch a shark, and that landing a great white is even rarer. But if you do accidentally pull one in, your best bet is to simply cut your fishing line and let the shark swim away.

“Removing a hook is a very common way for people to get bit,” Mansell said. “So if you don’t have pliers and the experience to remove a hook, the best plan of action would be to cut the line near to the hook and put the shark back in with the hook in its mouth. It’ll have a lip ring for a while, but eventually that hook will get pushed out.”

Outside also spoke with a ranger at nearby Cape Cod National Seashore. Cape Cod saw a fatal shark attack in 2018, and the shark population around the peninsula appears to be growing. The ranger directed readers to the park’s “Shark Safety” page, which offers the following tips for avoiding an attack:

• Be aware sharks hunt for seals in shallow water.
• Stay close to shore where rescuers can reach you.
• Don’t isolate yourself. Swim, paddle, kayak, and surf in groups.
• Avoid areas where seals are present.
• Avoid areas where schools of fish are visible.
• Avoid murky or low-visibility water.
• Limit splashing.
• Follow all signage and flag warnings at beaches and instructions of the lifeguards.