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The Gemma accidentally caught a small (4') great white 7/9/15 while collecting squid in Menemsha Bight. Crew: Bill Klimm and Dan Sullivan.

The specimen was caught up in the net some feet above the cod end and appeared to be stuck in the mesh by it's teeth. The target squid in the cod end had to be brought in quickly and transferred to life support so, after an effort to shake the shark loose, the net was raised and the shark pulled up into the spool. This took approximately 1 minute while the squid were transferred to tanks and then the net was lowered and the shark disentangled from the net. It was on the deck for another minute or two until it could be pushed off the back deck into the water. It was observed to actively swim away. The net did leave some embossed pattern on the skin indicating it was compressed when it was drawn up in the net. Based on the photos and the size of the hand-net we estimate the size as approximately 44-50 inches.