AVALON, N.J. -
Here's a "fish story" that has the added benefit of being true!
Joey Andreoli and several friends were out on a 22-foot pleasure craft off the coast of Avalon, Thursday, when Joey felt something tug at his line.
It was some kind of strangle shaped fish, about two-feet long.
"As he was coming toward the boat," says Joey, "he was swinging his head from side to side, and it looked just like a hammer, which was kind of funny."
Joey's friend Tim Orenbuch was on a waverunner nearby, and Cindy Hipwell grabbed her camera as the critter was reeled in.
"It's pretty scary at first," says Orenbuch. "You're like, what is that?"
Hipwell's reaction? "It was unbelievable. I just couldn't believe what he had in his hand."
We weren't exactly sure either until we visited the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, where they just happen to have a big collection of hammerhead sharks.
Marine biologist Matt Ferroni took a look at the pictures we sent him and quickly identified the shark as a juvenile, probably a one- or two-year-old scalloped hammerhead shark.
"It's actually one of the most common hammerhead species," says Ferroni.
He says the scalloped hammerhead ranges as far south as Belize and as far north as the Jersey Shore.
They're not dangerous, but adults can range in length up to 14 feet.
"And they'll tend to come in during the day and hunt along the shoreline and at night they'll move out into deeper waters, where it's a little safer and calmer for them to be."
Hammerheads are pretty cool. Their wide-set eyes see out to either side.
They sense electronic impulses out the front.
Ferroni says they are globally endangered, with Asian poachers killing them for their fins, a key ingredient in shark fin soup.
Our fishing friends can fairly brag they caught a shark. They don't have mention it was two feet long.
"It's a great story, a great fish story," says Roebuck. And "this one's real."
