'Unexpected visitor' chomps off most of fisherman's catch in one bite

WASHINGTON (TND) — A fisherman was cheated out of his catch when he encountered "an unexpected visitor," according to Connecticut Fish and Wildlife.

The agency on Tuesday said most of the angler's stripped bass was "chomped" off in one bite by another sea creature.

We hear of this happening more and more over the past couple of years," the agency noted in a Facebook post.

Connecticut Fish and Wildlife also asked the public to share photos of similar incidents, with at least a few people responding with images that showed their own encounters.

The culprits were most likely sharks.

"Our Long Island Sound is home to several species of shark, none of which are of concern from a public safety issue," a follow-up post noted. "We suspect the culprit which bit a striped bass while being reeled in and was the focus of a recent post on this page, was probably a sandbar (brown) shark, or less likely a dusky shark or sand tiger shark (these species are a little rarer than the sandbars)."

According to the agency, the species of shark are native to the area and are all threatened/protected species.

"We are not formally monitoring recreational angler/shark interactions so we do not know if there is an increase or not," the post noted. "However, if it is true there is an increasing number of interactions with anglers it is actually a positive sign of a native depleted predator species perhaps increasing in abundance. To be clear, sharks snagging a recreational angler catch here and there is not a bad thing, but instead is a positive sign for the Long Island ecosystem, and there is no concern for public safety."