Boy, 6, hooks estimated 12-foot great white shark off Massachusetts

EASTHAM, Mass., July 12 (UPI) -- A 6-year-old boy fishing with his family in Massachusetts hooked an unusually large fish -- an up to 12-foot great white shark.

Blake White, 6, was out fishing with his parents, grandparents and 8-year-old brother Saturday afternoon off Rock Harbor in Cape Cod Bay when he hooked a sea creature his parents initially thought to be a large striped bass.

"My brother thought it was, he thought it was a submarine," Blake told WBZ-TV. "It felt super strong."

Lars White, the boy's father, said the creature was soon revealed as a great white shark.

"'We're going to need a bigger boat,'" Lars White recalled telling his family in an interview with the Cape Cod Times. "The reaction was to ask the boys to go to the center of the boat and sit down."

"We saw a great big shark through the waves and then it took us about another half an hour to get it close enough to get some more pictures and then cut the line so we could release it," he said.

The father estimated the shark was about 10 to 12 feet long.

Blake's mother, Niccole, snapped photos of the fish that the Atlantic Great White Shark Conservancy viewed and confirmed the catch was a great white.

The family, who hail from Houston and were visiting Lars' parents in Massachusetts, said the shark was their only catch of the day.

Blake said he has a goal for his next outing: "I'm going to catch a smaller fish."