Campbell Keenan, a 12-year old Boston boy who was visiting Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his family, had an amazing experience when fishing off aboard Capt. Paul Paolucci’s charter boat off the coast of Fort Lauderdale – a 450 pound great white shark.
“We had to hold onto him. We had to make sure he wasn’t going to go off the boat,” his mother, Colleen Keenan said, according to WSVN-TV.
“We realized it was a shark when it was like 20 feet away, probably, and we had to get it in. We put this, like, buoy on it to make it not go under,” Campbell Keenan said of the experience, according to ABC News.
With the help of the crew, the boy was able to reel in the big fish. The shark had the hook removed and was tagged so that it could be tracked by researchers.
“It took awhile. It took 45 minutes or an hour to catch it,” Paolucci said. “We knew we had something pretty substantial from the initial bite it took about 300 yards out” adding that the shark was 130 inches long, about 450 pounds “and an absolutely beautiful female.”
The event has made headlines around the world, and has also trended in search engines, as Miami SEO analysts have discovered.
Check out the video below: