[Wiltan]

My story was not the winner on Blue. Reposting here for funsies.

In my late teens I occasionally went on six-hour deep sea fishing excursions out of my hometown of Gloucester, Massachusetts. The Yankee Fleet vessel would provide bait, tackle, and assistance, and use their fish finder radar to bring us out to good spots where everyone on board would cast their lines and typically reel in cod, haddock, or bluefish.

On one particular trip, hours went by in which nobody caught ANYTHING, despite the radar indicating a lot going on below us. Finally and nearly at once, two people on opposite sides of the boat yelled that they had hooked something big.

Eventually they realized they both had hooked the same fish, and moved to the stern where four crewmen with gaffs helped them land a fourteen-foot blue shark. The crew cut up the shark and split it between the two lucky fishermen. The shark’s head, still on the deck, continued snapping its jaws for nearly a full hour after it had been removed from its body.

The galley cooked up some of the shark and it was shared with everyone on board. It was the best fish I’ve ever tasted in my life.