497-pound shark the attraction in Niantic

East Lyme - Skipper Jon Haney and his friends were 30 miles off Montauk, N.Y., in the Atlantic Ocean this morning when they started throwing out shark chum to attract a catch.

"It was probably a half hour after that we got a bite," Haney said.

The bite on the end of the line wasn't the kind of catch you see everyday, Haney said. It was a thresher shark, and the crew spent close to four hours reeling it in.

When they pulled into Niantic Dockominium with the shark on board this afternoon, a small crowd gathered for a weigh in.

"510," one person estimated.

"I'm guessing 589," said Paul Motta, an Old Lyme fisherman who was aboard The Rockaway.

Twelve hours after the crew had first set out, the shark was hoisted up on the scale, with the official weight 497 pounds.

After taking the shark down, the crew said they planned to share the bounty.

"We're hoping to cut it up, make some nice thresher steaks," Motta said. "Just some wonderful harvest of the sea."