Washington state man catches shark with bare hands

June 30 (UPI) -- A college student who spotted a school of dogfish sharks swimming next to a dock was filmed jumping into the water and catching a shark with his bare hands.

A video posted to Instagram by Alex Winn, 19, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, shows him jumping Wednesday off a dock into Kitsap County's Liberty Bay and emerging with a furiously flapping dogfish shark pup in his hands.

Winn said the shark was released shortly after the end of the video. He said the release wasn't caught on camera because his friend's phone was low on battery charge.

"Overall, I just wanted to let people know I wasn't trying to hurt the fish at all," Winn told The Seattle Times. "He was back in the water really, really soon."

The video quickly went viral with thousands of views on Instagram.

Dayv Lowry, a fish expert and researcher with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, criticized Winn for "manhandling" the spiny dogfish shark, which he said was recently listed as an endangered species.

"It was a silly thing to do," Lowry said.