From The Redoubt Reporter, a newspaper published weekly in Soldotna, comes this epic tale of a commercial fisherman who found himself mediating a bear versus shark tug-of-war.
Earlier this week fisherman Bill Holt, a trail caretaker and school board member, dropped his nets in Clam Cove just outside Ketchikan. Holt place his buoy as close to the shore as he could, given state regulations.
He and his other crew members (his 12 year old son Galen, and an assistant named Maggie who is entering Harvard Medical School next fall) proceeded to lay out the rest of the net. As the tide started running out, and they began bringing in fish, Holt suddenly saw the buoy bob below the surface and start "thrashing around."
Holt quickly discovered that a salmon shark had become entangled in his net. Salmon sharks are a swift species which reach lengths of six to eight feet long, and can weigh up to 500 pounds.
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