US News

Fisherman reels in ‘dinosaur’-like monster fish

A Florida fisherman known as Mark the Shark came away from a recent excursion with a monster of a catch.

Charter boat Captain Mark Quartiano came away with a gigantic deepwater skate. The fish, which was reeled in off the coast of Miami beach, weighed in at a massive 800 lbs. and measured 14 ft. in length.

“I’ve caught one like it before, but never that size, not in the last 30 years I’ve been doing this,” Quartiano told ABC News. “It’s a very rare fish. It’s like a big gigantic whipping stingray. It’s a dinosaur.”

The monstrous catch, known as a Dactylobatus clarkii, commonly referred to as a “hookskate” or “fingerskate,” normally lives 1,000 ft. beneath the surface, but Quartiano snagged his catch in waters that were 500 ft. deep.

As nice as the catch may have been, the captain released the fish shortly after, saying he had no use for it.