{"id":239615,"date":"2026-04-20T23:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T23:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239615\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T23:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T23:22:07","slug":"video-shows-moment-massachusetts-family-reels-in-rare-10-foot-great-white-shark-off-fort-lauderdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239615\/","title":{"rendered":"Video shows moment Massachusetts family reels in rare 10-foot great white shark off Fort Lauderdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts<\/a> family’s fishing trip off Fort Lauderdale<\/a> turned into the catch of a lifetime Monday when they reeled in a 10-foot great white shark about a mile offshore.<\/p>\n

The group was aboard a charter with Fishing Headquarters when the massive shark took the line, sparking a lengthy and exhausting fight.<\/p>\n

“I got in the chair first and it tuckered me out so my dad had to come in and I finished it out,” said Donovan Smith, who was visiting South Florida from Reading, Massachusetts. “My arms are super tired, it was a crazy fight, probably the craziest moment I’ve ever had.”<\/p>\n

Donovan and his father, Judd Smith, worked together to bring in the shark, not realizing what they had hooked until it neared the boat.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t know what we had until we were reeling it in, it took forever to reel in, it was huge,” Judd Smith said.<\/p>\n

The rare catch was also a first for the boat’s mate.<\/p>\n

“It was absolutely amazing, I’ve been fishing here for 7 years and I’ve never caught one,” said mate Logan Graf.<\/p>\n

Captain Paul Paolucci, who has been with the company for more than two decades, said great white encounters are uncommon but not unheard of.<\/p>\n

“Since 2003 I’ve caught 6,” Paolucci said.<\/p>\n

Why great white sightings happen off South Florida<\/p>\n

Experts say while rare, great white sharks do appear off South Florida’s coast<\/a>, particularly during cooler months.<\/p>\n

“We know that they’re present off of our coasts especially in the cooler months of the year,” said Catherine Macdonald, director of the University of Miami’s shark research and conservation program.<\/p>\n

Macdonald added that great whites tend to avoid shallow waters, meaning beachgoers typically aren’t at risk.<\/p>\n

“The data is showing that white sharks are increasing in numbers off the east coast of the United States and Canada and that’s a great sign for population recovery overall, but we’re not necessarily seeing more so much as noticing them more,” she said.<\/p>\n

Shark released after rare catch<\/p>\n

Because great white sharks are a protected species, the crew released the animal after bringing it alongside the boat.<\/p>\n

For the Smith family, the experience is one they won’t soon forget.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of the best moments of my life,” Donovan Smith said.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Massachusetts family’s fishing trip off Fort Lauderdale turned into the catch of a lifetime Monday when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[506,249,52803,26392,123,125,124,807],"class_list":["post-239615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-broward-county","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-great-white-shark","tag-massachusetts","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}