Underwatertimes.com News Service - February 4, 2006 17:30 EST
greenland shark

Diane Guillemette, left, caught this 500-pound Greenland shark without a permit

The woman who caught a shark the size of a small car while ice fishing earlier this week could be fined because she didn't have the proper fishing permits.

Diane Guillemette was fishing with her partner in the Saguenay fiord - where waters from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean meet about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City - when she caught a Greenland shark.

The shark, which weighed 230 kilograms and was more than three metres long, had to be hauled from the ice with the help of a snowmobile.

But while Guillemette's catch attracted the attention of media outlets across the province, it also raised eyebrows at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Officials for the government body are investigating the catch because Guillemette didn't have a permit to fish shark. According to the agency, she should have cut her line and returned the shark to the water.

The agency could hand down a fine sometime next week.

The giant shark itself was expected to be displayed in a local museum, but a maritime institute in Rimouski has commandeered the cadaver.