Amesbury Teen Catches Massive Shark

By Bill Shields, WBZ-TV

August 17, 2011 5:47 PM

Filed under

Local, News, Seen On WBZ-TV, Syndicated Local, Watch + Listen

BOSTON (CBS) – Imagine that you’ve got your line in the water, and hoping to land a nice big cod for the dinner table. Suddenly, the line becomes tight, your rod jerks violently, and you discover that it’s no cod, it’s a 12-foot blue shark.

That’s what happened to 15-year-old Ethan Lynch of Amesbury, and the blue shark he landed may be the biggest ever caught in state waters.

“It was amazing,” says Lynch. ” After about a half hour of fighting the fish, I got it near the boat, and ZING! it starts reeling off another 100 feet of line!”

WBZ-TV’s Bill Shields reports

Ethan Lynch and his little brother Noah are enrolled in a summer camp called “Coastal Discoveries”. The program takes kids onto the water, and teaches them fishing and a love of the ocean.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Mike Macklin reports

Lee Yeomans, one of the program’s founders, said today, “That’s the biggest fish we’ve ever landed and the kids learned a lot too.”

Ethan’s fish weighed in at 458 pounds. Four pounds more than the state record.

“I was very surprised,” he said, “that was a BIG fish.”

She

It’s a shame a beautiful creature had to die because someone else thought it would be fun.

NuffCed

They were fishing for cod and happened to hook a shark. As it came in, it had regurgitated internal organs, which is regrettable, but sometimes happens. So, it was a goner before they even had a chance see it , much less release it, which is what the Coastal Discoveries program would normally have done.

Instead of cutting the line and letting it suffer its inevitable death, they brought it in and used it as a teaching tool for 20 young people, which is the only reasonable thing to do.

That said, your ad hominem attacks at kids shows that you’re just another one of the typically unsophisticated haters trolling the websites looking for a reason to vent. We’re neither enlightened by your commentary, nor interested. Go punch your pillow if you’re so angry. But spare us…..

Mary

So the shark got killed just so a few camp kids could “learn”? I would have thought that a group aimed at educating children about the ocean would have had a clue the teen was pulling in a lot more than a cod, and must have clearly seen it as it got close to the boat. The line should have been cut and the shark released. It is actually turning my stomach, what a waste.
swim69

I couldn’t agree more with both of these comments. You guys are jerks to have killed this beautiful shark. Honestly, so stupid, dumb and selfish. Oh great… you broke a record, big deal. Shame on you for killing such an amazing creature. Nice school, nice message to send to our children…. Mary, I’m disgusted as well.

linds

oh my gosh wow its not like you are so perfect “oh no i had some meat i should go to jail!” its not like he said “hey i really feel like killing a shark today” no he didnt i bet he rather have not killed it
Ash

so u have never killed anything b4? humm? not even a bug?

Hypocrisy

Ash, linds – you speak the truth. Couldn’t agree with you more. Some might not like those on the right side of the issue… and some might not like those on the left side of the issue, but nobody likes a hypocrite.

You rock. You’ve obviously received some good coaching somewhere…

Pacificpatroller

alright, beautiful or not it’s still the same as catching a cod, just a little bigger. The point of fishing is to reel in whatever is caught, also considering they litter about an average of 50 babies and they are not even relatively close to being endangered it’s not to big of a deal. They are actually one of the most abundant sharks. Your comments would be more due on an article on the poaching of endangered sea turtles in the pacific,

Fishlover

People do “catch and release” in the fishing world.. I thnik it is disgusting they killed this fish… I agree ithe line should have been cut and the shark released.. I think this was inhumane. Remind me again, what was the education here?

tim

congrats kid, you caught one of the dumbest animals in the sea, using a technique that requires no skill at all. You then Kill a huge animal with absolutely NO value as food, as you cannot eat a blue shark. This kid killed this animal out of pure hubris, what a great message it sends, kill a big fish and get on TV, real sport there.
Oh, how do you kill a shark? you drag it behind a boat for an hour to suffocate it, real sporting. congrats wbz on breaking this fantastic story.

NuffCed

They were fishing for cod, moron. By the time they could identify it, it was a goner (see above). Hubris? Where did you see that? It’s an environmental camp with about 20 kids on board. They tried to at least get some educational value out of it.

Yeesshh! Go home, hug your kids, pet your dog, call your mom and tell her you love her… whatever… But lighten up and get some perspective.

mr perspective

where do you see that fish was a goner? that fish was lively enough next to the boat to run out 100′ of line, according to the kid. in the video they show the fish struggling violently as it’s roped by the tail. see, moron, that’s how you KILL a shark is you drag it backwards behind a boat(or shoot it). so yeah, when they pulled that shark on board(by the tail) it was very dead and very safe to lie down next to and take a photo.
yeeesh, send your kids to that stupid “environmental camp” where they teach kids to kill rather than catch and release. They hauled the thing back to the beach for a photo and nothing else, killed the thing for nothing.

tray117

People! Listen to NuffCed. He knows what he’s talking about. Sometimes when fish are hooked they spit out their own entrails. When this happens you cannot stuff them back in and, subsequently, the fish dies. I’ve had this happen to me when I caught a small sailfish off Boca Raton, FL. It died and it was a shame but it happens.
John

They could have mentioned what NuffCed in the story about the shark being a ‘goner’. While NuffCed may not like the comments made, people have a right to be concerned about the indiscriminate killing of sharks, even if that was not the case here.

NuffCed

I completely agree with you. But come on John, be honest. Do these comments really strike you as being from “concerned” citizens? Self-indulgent, ad hominem attacks by a group of self-righteous trolls who are rushing to judgment on a group of 9 to 16 year old kids? They don’t know the facts about the event. They don’t appear to know the facts about the species, or the fishery, or even fishing in general. You’d think they’d exercise a little humility when expressing their uninformed opinions.

coca

I am really annoyed about this report. What did they learn from this shark? And, why not use the meat for food? What a waste. Shame on the Costal Discoveries program.
Stupid Is

Humility is in short supply these days and certainly not on display in the news story. I’m just wondering why they would have test line strong enough to catch a 450 lb shark if they were fishing for cod, but what do I know ’cause I was never fortunate enough to participate in a camp like that one. I’m sure NuffHumilityfortheRestofUs knows the answer to that one and hopefully will educate a poor moron like me.

Hypocrisy

Fishermen can target general categories of fish, but what they ultimately catch is unknown until it is brought to the boat. Here, they were deep sea fishing for cod, but the captain probably also had a line out for tuna, which is a big, edible and valuable pelagic species. This line probably was rigged with larger test line. When the captain hooked into the big one, the captain probably gave the rod to the kid. Hoping for tuna, they probably wouldn’t have known what it was until next to the boat. If what other posters have said is correct (and spilling guts is unfortunately quite common), then it would be too late to catch and release. It would still be alive and fighting back, but the end result would be inevitable even if the line were cut. This is probably why they ran the boat trailing the fish – to kill it quicker.

So, that is what seems to have happened. No blood lust. Happens all the time. Unless your beef is with fishing in general, then you really can’t fault the program and certainly not the kid. And if your beef is with fishing in general, then fine, but fess up and say it.

swim69

Dear Mr. NuffCed – Perhaps if YOU were nicer in your comments to the rest of us, I might actually listen to you. But since you reverted to calling us “morons”, “self-indulgent”, “self-righteous” and even, “trolls” – I will do no such thing. The angle of the article here was about a boy who caught a shark that made a state record. They said nothing of the shark passing before he was hauled aboard, or that it possibly had lost some internal organs and may have already been dead, and in fact from the video you can see that it was fighting! I agree with Mr. Perspective’s comments and also John. Thank you gentlemen for defending us. This should not be allowed; it’s disgraceful. And, I, for one hope that both the boy’s family and some representatives from the Coastal Discoveries program will read these comments and learn something. I send both my son and daughter to ocean fishing programs, and I will never recommend that they attend there. Shameful… And to you, Mr. “enough said”, keep your comments to yourself, because no one wants to listen; you’re wrong. There was no reason that this shark had to lose it’s life and I think more folks would agree with me than with you.

Nuffced

Re-read your comments.

Before I posted a single word, you and your peers went into full venom-mode by calling the kid “stupid, dumb and selfish.” Instead of going at the issue – killing of sharks (in which I agree with you) – you went at a 15 year-old. “Shameful” indeed. And what’s more, you didn’t know the facts (which is fine) but that didn’t stop you from acting holier-than-thou and passing judgment in your post.

So if you don’t like the name-calling in response, stop with the name calling in the initial instance. Look in the mirror. Enough said.

Hypocrisy

He’s right you know Ms. Swimm69. You and everybody else did start all of this by attacking the kid instead of the larger issue. Very nasty and childish for you all to do so, if you ask me. Leave the kid alone. I’m sure he had no say in what happened.

And if the shark really was a goner, then they really didn’t do anything wrong, unless you have a problem with fishing in general. And if you do, then kind of hypocritcal to send your kids to ocean fishing programs and then attack a kid in an ocean fishing program who happened to catch a big fish. Just sayin….