A brave Brit was hoping to reel in a shark during a fishing trip in Florida but ended up hooking a far scarier sea monster.
Ian Atherton, from Fleetwood in Lancashire, was aboard a shark-fishing trip with Captain Jon Cangianella of Fin & Fly charters on Saturday morning, hoping to reel in a shark.
During the half-day adventure Ian and Jon sailed a few miles into the Atlantic before anchoring where they planned to cast out, the Daily Star reports.
Ian then pierced some bluefish on his hook in the hopes of attracting one of the world's most fearsome predators.
But as quickly as the line plunged into the water, he immediately felt a pull on the line.
It was the start of an hour-long battle between man and fish, with Ian trying to reel in what he first thought was a shark.
But Jon soon realised that Ian had caught something much rarer than a shark – a 13ft-long sawfish, Daily Star reports.
The bizarre looking animals have a rostrum – or a saw – along their very long noses, which can be up to 5ft long.
Although they are also called carpenter sharks, they are really rays rather than sharks and are generally thought to be harmless to humans unless they are defending themselves.
Ian and Jon first recognised the sawfish when the rostrum – looking like a hedge trimmer – came out of the water.
The captain managed to free the fish - which are officially endangered - from the hook without getting the animal out of the water, and it swam off.
Smalltooth sawfish – which can be as long as 16ft – are known to inhabit Florida waters,
But they are rare creatures , with fishing over the past century resulting in their numbers dwindling.
They are one of five species of sawfish around the world but the only one found off Florida’s Space Coast.
Sawfish have mythological significance in various societies around the world. In some parts of Africa, dancing dressed as sawfish forms part of coming-of-age ceremonies, while in Gambia the saws indicate courage.
