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Fishermen rescue great white shark caught in weir

By Ben Hooper
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Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A group of fishermen in New Brunswick rescued a great white shark found caught in a weir and towed it back out to open water.

William Hanley said he was examining his Back Bay fishing weir, an enclosure in the water meant to trap fish, when he found the large great white shark was trapped.

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Hanley said he has freed other unintentional catches from the weir before, but the great white shark posed a particular challenge because its teeth kept cutting through his net.

"She was a little harder because her teeth were so sharp. We'd pull the twine and the twine would just part, just like a hot butter knife going through butter," Hanley told CTV News.

Hanley was eventually able to tie a rope around the shark's tail and raise it using a winch. Part of the scene was captured on video by his daughter, Arielle.

Hanley towed the shark to safety and released it.

"She was a little slow but she swam off," Hanley told CBC News. "She was beat."

The fisherman said killing the shark never crossed his mind.

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"I've had a lot of people ask me, 'Why didn't you do that?' It's not bothering me," he says of the shark.

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