Underwatertimes.com News Service - May 12, 2006 16:18 EST
record hammerhead

Captains Owen Osborne, left, and James Holland, center, assisted Capt. Andy Whitbread

A potential world record hammerhead shark was caught on Wednesday in Boca Grande Pass.

Capt. Andy Whitbread of Fort Myers captured a 13 foot, 4 inch, 750-pound hammerhead. Whitbread used an estimated 12- to 15-pound live crevalle jack as bait and caught the fish on 80-pound class tackle for the potential line-class world record.

Whitbread has to submit an application to the International Game Fish Association in Fort Lauderdale for certification of the record.

The current world record is 620 pounds. That hammerhead was caught in Freeport, Texas in 1976.

Whitebread managed the feat with the assistance of captains Owen Osborne of Fort Myers and James Holland of LaBelle.

The men documented the weight on a certified truck scale in LaBelle, and have plans to submit an application for a record to the International Game Fish Association.

They burried the carcass in an Orange Grove in LaBelle.