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Photo starts feeding frenzy over monster shark caught from Florida beach

Posted at 9:22 AM, Apr 22, 2014
and last updated 2014-04-22 09:33:47-04

Milton, Fla. –  A Florida fisherman made the catch of a lifetime – reeling a monster shark to the beach. Joey Polk pulled in the 805-pound Mako last week.

Polk and his two cousins would have rather their catch go unnoticed.

Someone snapped a photo of the shark while the fishermen stopped to get gas. They posted the photo on social media and the story went viral.

Polk and his cousins say they don’t want people to try and ban land-based shark fishing and they don’t want to scare off tourists with the impression the Gulf of Mexico is filled with sharks.

Most of their sharks don’t come home in a pickup truck–or end up in pieces for dinner–the Polks say the fish normally gets a tag.

“We just want to save our sport the more people that know about it the more people that crowd our beach, with hundreds of people swimming that’s not what we want,” Polk said. “Probably 95 percent [of what we catch is] catch and release.”