TRAVERSE CITY -- A large orange fishing bobber drifted across West Grand Traverse Bay, and Rich Fasi decided to scoop it up before the attached line tangled in someone's motor.
Fasi was out for a cruise on his boat Wednesday evening, and noticed something suspended below the baseball-sized bobber as he approached. He thought someone had set up a unique salmon rig, but a shock awaited him as he pulled in the line.
"I could see a fish down there about three feet down, but the last thing I expected was a shark on the end," Fasi said.
There aren't any witnesses, but Fasi, of Traverse City, said he pulled the roughly 2-foot shark from the bay about 100 yards west of Clinch Park Marina at about 5 p.m. He found the shark in about 25 feet of water, he said. It was dead, but wasn't frozen.
"I could wiggle its tail, pry open its mouth, look at its teeth," he said. "It didn't look like it had any decomposition."
Fasi threw the fish in his freezer and called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Cadillac-based DNR fisheries biologist Mark Tonello said the incident likely is a "big fat hoax."
"We don't believe there was ever a live shark swimming around Grand Traverse Bay ... my guess is somebody caught it out east, put it on ice, brought it back here and decided to have a little fun," he said.
The shark appears to be a juvenile blacktip shark, said George Burgess, director of the Florida Program For Shark Research at the University of Florida. The species ranges from New York south to the Caribbean, said Burgess, who viewed e-mail photos of the fish.
"This isn't the first time we've seen hoaxes like this," he said.
It's also possible the shark was a local resident's pet, Tonello said. The shark wouldn't have lived long if placed in the bay while alive, Tonello said, and would have deteriorated very quickly in the bay's warm water.
Fasi, a marketer for a local insurance company, said he's met skepticism over his find from the moment he set foot on the dock, but he denies placing the shark in the bay. Onlookers thought the shark was rubber, and his friends wouldn't believe his story without proof.
"Every one of them said 'I want to see pictures,'" he said.
The fish will remain in Fasi's freezer for now, he said. His friends are jawing over his find, and he's not quite sure what he'll do with the fish.
"A lot of them just think it's bizarre," he said.
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