15-foot hammerhead shark caught at Florida bachelor party

iStockphoto / Ryan Cake

A groom-to-be will never forget his Florida bachelor party after landing on a 15.5-foot balloon. hammerhead sharkone of the biggest sharks we’ve ever seen captured Floridawhile fishing with legendary Captain Mark the Shark, specializing in Monster Fishing Charters on the east coast of Florida.

Mark the Shark has been catching some of Florida’s biggest sharks for decades. He is a captain based in Pompano Beach, Florida, just north of Lauderdale, and is extremely well known in the Florida fishing community, although he is a bit of a controversial figure, with some often being taken to harvest sharks at catch-and-release fishing spot.

This epic 15 foot hammerhead shark has been brought back into obscurity and most of the comments on Instagram and Facebook are “Why did you kill it?” ” and to this, Mark’s response is that this shark, and all the others he has kept over the past few years, are donated to local homeless shelters in the form of free meals/fresh fish.

Here is the moment when this shark arrived next to the boat:

Mark the Shark then shared this video and an additional photo of his son posing with the massive 15-foot hammerhead shark. As mentioned above, the shark was captured, so if seeing captured/kept sharks is a trigger for you, you may want to stop scrolling:

Once the local media caught wind of this epic catch, they obviously sent a team to speak with Mark the Shark about the massive hammerhead shark:

According to NBC Miami, this hammerhead shark weighed approximately 1,200 pounds. Fisherman Bob Takacs was fishing with friends at his bachelor party and he was the one who caught this hammerhead shark which is truly one of the biggest we have ever seen caught in Florida and I’m a Floridian born and raised.

The groom told NBC6 “I didn’t expect it to be at the end of that line.” Obviously. No one expects to catch a hammerhead shark that weighs more than 1,200 pounds and has enough meat to feed a homeless shelter for weeks.

While Mark ‘The Shark’ Quartiano often makes headlines for keeping huge sharks. He is also believed to have tagged and released more sharks than any other captain in the state of Florida and perhaps the world. So it’s not as if every hammerhead shark or mako that arrives at their boat ends up at the table, quite the contrary.

As for regulations regarding great hammerhead sharks, they are a protected species in Florida. However, if caught in international waters, they can be exploited.