Shark takes fish off fisherman's line

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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Fishing in San Francisco has a new attraction, a chance to see a fish you've caught get eaten by a shark before you've reeled it in, a ship's captain says.

Jim Robertson, captain of a charter boat sailing San Francisco Bay, said he came upon a school of salmon earlier in August, and as passenger Joseph Meyers caught a 20-pound salmon, "We saw this massive splash. I looked over and saw the fin. Then the great white (shark) came up and made a giant swirl around the fish. You could see his back, his dorsal (fin), his tail. The first pass, he chopped off that big salmon right behind the two front fins, a 20-pounder cut clean."

Meyers brought in the head of the salmon, to the cheers of others aboard, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.

"Joe had about eight pounds of salmon left on the hook," Robertson said, adding that in his 35-year career in the Bay he has seen only about a dozen great white sharks.