510-pound shark reeled in after 3-hour fight

There's no doubt that sharks are one of those creatures who can't help but inspire equal amounts of awe and dread. Human beings aren't often the prey of these fearsome underwater predators, with attacks on homo sapiens by sharks being comparatively rare, but movies like Jaws and Deep Blue Sea have given them an (undeservedly) monstrous reputation.

However, earlier this month a group of fishermen made an impressive catch, reeling in a gigantic 510lbs shark off the coast of New Jersey that looks almost as big as Spielberg's big fish.

Friends, Joseph Egitto, Pat Salvato and Frank Pomponio have fished for years, and on August 18 they departed from Tottenville early, stopping at Dockside Bait and Tackle in Sewaren, where they purchased a bunker fish as chum.

They then drove their small boat 30 miles east into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Sandy Hook, to a well-known fishing spot known as "Monster Lodge" by locals. Around noon, a shark bit their lure, and then the men spent the next three hours fighting the gigantic beast, reeling him in gradually.

Eventually, the anglers were able to haul the large thresher shark out of the water. But the animal was too big to fit into the boat, so the three men were compelled to lash it to the side of their vessel and make the long journey back to shore.

They took a number of pictures of their bounty, which were later uploaded to the official Facebook page of the Staten Island Fishing Club, where it quickly picked up a lot of attention.

Commenting on their awesome catch in a later interview with Patch, fisherman Joseph Egitto stated: "We try to fish every day that it's nice, every weekend and usually five to six times a week ... I feel like I've aged 20 years just fighting that thing."

He added: "It took three grown men taking turns to fight that shark. It's literally man versus beast. As the shark pulled down, you felt your bodyweight go light. A couple of times the shark pulled Frank so hard when he was strapped into the harness that he stumbled into the back of the boat."

But this isn't the first time we've written about sharks. Check out this incredible video of a shark being swallowed whole by a giant fish during a feeding frenzy.