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Petersburg fisherman catches salmon shark while gill netting

Abbey Collins / KFSK

Uncommon catch was donated to school for science class dissection.

A Petersburg fisherman gill netting near Red Bay last week pulled in an “uncommon” haul.

The salmon shark was a pretty uncommon catch in the waters near Petersburg, Joe Willis said.

Willis donated the salmon shark to grade school science, giving the kids a chance to explore.

“Yeah it was second to the last set of the opening,” Willis said. “I thought I had a few salmon by the amount of corks that went down but when we hauled it, he has already perished so we thought instead of just feeding sea life on the bottom we’d let the kids at school enjoy.”

“Normally we’re able to release them unharmed back,” Willis said. “They usually swim away, they’re pretty resilient. But this one was pretty tired when it came up and I didn’t think it was going to make it, so we figured we’d let the kids enjoy it. The anatomy is unique compared to other salmon and stuff.”

“The kids just love poking and prodding at sea life,” Willis said.