By The Associated Press
Posted: 03/29/2011 02:03:56 PM PDT
Updated: 03/30/2011 12:14:33 PM PDT

FREEPORT, Texas – It’s the catch of a lifetime, but it’s not clear whether a Texas fisherman landed an 8-foot shark or it landed him.

Jason Kresse, 29, of Freeport, and two crew members had been fishing for red snapper about 50 miles into the Gulf of Mexico and were dumping fish guts into the water about 3:45 a.m. Monday when they heard two big splashes in the distance.

“All of a sudden something hit the side of the boat,” Kresse told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “He ends up landing on the back of the boat.”

The mako shark had apparently been in a rush to feed. It began thrashing around, and Kresse said he and his crew couldn’t get close to the 375-pound fish to toss it back in the water. It damaged the boat before dying several hours later.

Kresse, who has been fishing since he was a child, said the unplanned catch was a shock. Just unloading it was a challenge because it was so heavy.

“We had to use a forklift to get it off the boat when we got to the dock,” Kresse said.

The crew didn’t have a permit to catch sharks, so Kresse contacted federal fisheries officials on shore to get one. Mike Cox, a spokesman with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said there’s no violation because the shark’s death was an accident.

The shark is on display at a seafood business in Freeport, about 55 miles south of Houston.

“I’m going to get a mount of it,” Kresse said. “A fish jumping in your boat, 400 pounds, that’s unbelievable.”

The original and complete article can be found here.

Massive die offs are currently more common than you might think, as reported from this (hopefully) unrelated article.

Speculation of the causes range from global warming, the gulf oil spill and the CIA testing death rays.

Max BottomTime has posted exclusive, as it happened video:

To view this video on YouTube, click here.

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From the original LA Times article:

Authorities in Redondo Beach are investigating what killed millions of fish over the last day at King Harbor Marina.

Fish, including anchovies, sardines and mackerel were floating lifeless in Basins 1 and 2 of the north side of King Harbor Marina.

(Photo from the LA Times)

“There’s basically fish everywhere you go in the harbor,” said the harbor’s assistant manager, Jason McMullin, who added that there were reports that a red tide may have driven the fish into the harbor in massive numbers where they died because of limited oxygen.

Redondo Beach public works officials were dispatched to the harbor to investigate further but did not have immediate comment.

The fish were attracting huge flocks of seagulls and other birds.

Updated at 12:15 p.m.: Redondo Beach officials said initial assessments suggest oxygen depletion in the King Harbor basins caused the massive fish die-off.

City Manager Bill Workman said city officials with the help of marine experts would help determine if there was any environmental issue involved. Tests are now being performed on the water as officials begin removing the dead fish, which city officials estimated to be in the millions.

“There are no visible signs of any toxins that might have caused [the die-off] and our early assessment is that this was oxygen depletion,” Workman said. “This is similar to what we experienced five years ago but that was distinctly a red tide event but there’s no discoloration of the water, no associated foaming in the waves, Workman said. “There are no oil slicks or leaking of substances into the water.”

Workman noted that the harbor had been teeming in recent weeks with bait fish that even after their deaths “had no signs of degradation.”

— Andrew Blankstein