A lucky tourist on a fishing excursion off the Florida coast scored the catch of a lifetime — and endless bragging rights — after hooking a great white shark.
Sudden Strike Offshore Adventures, a charter fishing company in Volusia County, posted a video showing the moment a customer from Nova Scotia, Canada, snared the great white shark 20 miles off the coast of Ponce Inlet Thursday.
In the footage, a man is heard chuckling and excitedly whooping while the 10-to-12-foot apex predator — likely a juvenile — is seen on the hook a few feet below the ocean surface.
“One of our customers got the fortunate opportunity to catch the fish of a lifetime,” Captain Scott Housel told ClickOrlando.
Housel had taken tourists out to an artificial reef to fish for grouper and triggerfish when they spotted the shark circling the 31-foot boat.
Housel said the visitors weren’t trying to hook the shark, but after some time the massive fish took the bait — and dragged the boat for two miles.
After about 30 minutes, the boat crew let the shark go and it swam away.
Housel said it was his fourth encounter with a great white while fishing – but his first time hooking one.
The great white shark is classified as a vulnerable species, and it is prohibited to harvest them in state waters, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.