The Region : 3,000-Pound Great White Shark Caught

A 14-foot, 3,000-pound great white shark was netted off Anacapa Island in the Santa Barbara Channel over the weekend by a reluctant commercial fisherman. The fish became tangled in a gill net meant for swordfish, said Bill Sutton, whose 42-foot boat, the Aurelia, towed the shark into port. “I didn’t really want him,” Sutton said. “My one mistake the whole time was trying to put him on the boat. I’ve had big things on the boat, but when we tried to lift it, we almost broke the hydraulics. That’s when I knew it was really big.” Sutton, 32, who operates a sea food store and restaurant in Ojai and who has been a commercial fisherman more than 20 years, said he ended up having to tow the shark to port, where it was lifted by a crane onto the dock as about 350 people looked on.