Alaska angler lands huge salmon shark

KENAI, Alaska, June 25 (UPI) -- A veteran fisherman who landed a rare salmon shark in Alaska's Cook Inlet says the 325-pound whopper went quietly.

"It was alive but not really fighting much. It just came right up to the side of the boat," John Vargo told the Peninsula Clarion newspaper in Kenai, Alaska, after his less-than-epic battle.

Salmon sharks inhabit the waters of the northern Pacific; however the Peninsula Clarion said they were a rarity in Cook Inlet where Vargo has fished for halibut for nine years.

And while salmon sharks average more than 6 feet in length and about 400 pounds, the specimen Vargo hauled in Friday stretched 7 feet, 4 inches.

"It was really heavy," Vargo recalled. "It just acted like an anchor. We didn't realize it was a shark until it was right up against the boat."

The fish was dispatched with a gunshot and wound up on the barbecue that night, the Peninsula Clarion said.

"It was some of the best meat I ever had," Vargo said to the newspaper. "It was almost exactly like a really good pork chop; real juicy and tender."