New World Record Greenland Shark Caught!

A new record Greenland Shark has been caught by Norwegian anglers Asgeir Alvestad and John Olav Floro-Larsen in Nedstrandsfjorden in Norway. The monster fish was measured at 4.46 metres long with a girth of 2.66 metres giving it an approximate weight of over 1100kg - making it possibly the second largest fish caught on rod and line in history!
The huge 16/0 Mutu hooks on the shark traces!
On their third attempt at the record the lucky anglers had been aiming to beat the 500kg mark, using heavy stand-up gear and Penn International reels loaded with Berkley Fireline and 3mm steel wire rigs armed with two Owner Mutu 16/0 Circle hooks at the business end!
The shark had an estimated weight of over 1100kg!
The team went through 60kg of bait on the trip, consisting of Cod, Pollack, SeaTrout, Mackerel, Squid and even Whale and Seal meat! Around 2kg of bait was loaded onto each hook and was changed hourly as it is attacked by Hagfish and smaller Shark species and to keep the baits as fresh as possible. Baiting was hard work as it took around 15 to 20 minutes to reel the baits up from a depth of 700 metres every time!
Asgeir gets ready to release the shark back to the depths!
At the moment Asgeir, who is a representative of Pure Fishing in Norway,  is not certain if he will make it into the official record books but releasing the fish was more important to him than any accolade. The Greenland Shark is very slow growing at around 0.5cm a year and this specimen is estimated to be between 500 and 800 years old - making it one of the oldest living creatures on the planet, and captures are quite rare with only 5 or 6 reported annually. Asgeir said 'We will try to register it, until there are changes in this section of the world of sport fishing, no one gains anything from the large specimens getting killed.'

Check out the video of this amazing capture below!

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