The Cape Times quotes various shark researchers as saying that increased levels of Great White fishing starts around this time of the year when the sharks generally spend much of their time closer to the shore. Great White sharks are protected.
The fisherman was told that catching the species is illegal by angry shark researcher Ryan Johnson of Ocean Research. It was returned to the foaming waters, having survived its ordeal and swam away to deeper waters.
Meanwhile Bekker says he did not know that he had hooked a Great White shark when he was fishing and claimed that he had "only been fishing for about a year" and that he is a "beginner in sport fishing".
He denied that he had been trophy hunting and claims that the Great White was washed onto the rocks and had not been hauled there. However, members of the public have a series of photographs showing that Bekker and another man pulled it onto the rocks before Bekker posed with the creature, giving a thumbs-up sign, having measured it.
Read the full article on www.iol.co.za.
