Catch of the Day : Ocean: The One That Didn’t Get Away was a 17-foot great white shark that a 25-year-old man landed after a three-hour struggle off Anacapa Island.

A commercial fisherman’s hunt for swordfish off the Channel Islands turned into a victorious battle with a 17-foot great white shark that weighed more than 2,000 pounds when sold from an Oxnard wharf Thursday.

Tad Galey, 25, of Oxnard landed the prize catch by harpoon on his 37-foot boat after a three-hour test of wills Wednesday evening.

“Every time his tail hit the boat, it shook it like it was nothing,” First Mate Tom Post said.

An airplane pilot hired to spot swordfish for Galey notified him at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday that he had sighted a great white about seven miles west of Anacapa Island. Galey and Post immediately set course and reached the location half an hour later.

On the way, Galey attached 400 yards of line and weighted buoys to a hand-held harpoon. After maneuvering his boat alongside the mammoth fish, Galey flung the harpoon into the shark near its tail.

“A tail shot wears them down quicker, because they’re pulling the gear from the tail rather than the head, and that’s where they get their propulsion,” said Galey, who is primarily a sea urchin diver.

The shark seemed to hardly react and drew out about 100 yards of line before resurfacing, Galey said. He then hurled a second harpoon into the back of the shark’s head.

“He pulled everything under, buoys and all, and then we lost sight of him,” Galey said. “A half-hour later, the first set of gear popped up. He bit through the line like he took a razor blade to it.

“I figured we lost him and $300 worth of gear,” Galey said. “I was thinking, ‘Damn, I should never have tried to stick him.’ ”

But the second set of buoys resurfaced minutes later, and Galey and Post began pulling the line in by hand. “He seemed pretty worn down, but he was still a big fish,” Galey said.

Only when Galey tried to land the shark did he fully appreciate its power.

“We got him to the boat and tried to get a sling around his tail. He freaked and took off running again,” Galey said.

After pulling the shark in a second time, Galey said, “I tried to tie him off to a cleat on the stern, and he almost beaned me with his tail.”

At 6 p.m., the pair succeeded in landing the shark after pulling it in a third time.

Though rarely caught, large great whites are sometimes seen near the Channel Islands. Last year a Ventura fisherman landed a 15-foot, 2,500-pound great white off Santa Cruz Island.

On Thursday, Galey contacted a Los Angeles fish wholesaler while returning to his slip at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard. The wholesaler paid him more than $1,000 for the shark, minus jaws and tail, he said. The body weighed about 2,000 pounds, he said.

The set of razor-sharp, 1 1/2-inch-long teeth could fetch him an even larger sum, the fisherman said.

“Hopefully, I’ll get $2,000 to $3,000 for the jaws,” said Galey. A blemish of some missing lower teeth might diminish the value, he said. “What the collectors want is a perfect rack of jaws.”

Despite the financial gain, Galey is not gloating over his catch for fear of reprisal from other sharks during a future sea urchin dive.

“I stuck a 12-foot great white last year and he rolled away from me,” Galey said. “He got a good look at me, though, and he’s still out there.”