Nine-year-old Hunter Stevens—also known as “Sharkboy”—and his dad made jaws drop last August with a viral video documenting what father Kevin Stevens called a “Texas Sleigh ride.” The fishermen hooked a shark spanning more than half the length of their 12-foot kayak. For the next hour, the elder Stevens fought to hang onto his reel as the shark dragged the boat through the waters about a mile off the Galveston coast.
On Sunday, Hunter landed his first catch of the season—a 5-foot black tip that he described as “the littlest, feistiest shark me and my dad have caught.” At one point in this trip’s recording, Kevin talks his son through the catch: “Don’t let him pull you over. They might call CPS on us.”
But, according the Houston Zoo aquarium keeper Rebecca Herring, Hunter was never in much danger. “This was not a dangerous shark, by any means,” Herring (who has the perfect name for her job) told Culture Map Houston. “They’re incredibly fast swimmers. If you come into direct sudden contact, it might knick you, but for the most part, they’re very skittish and will run away.”
Stevens and his son chronicle their fishing adventures on their blog, SharkBoyHunter.com. Whether you call it reckless or adventurous, the young fisherman plans to keep at it with his dad, because “there’s thousands and thousands of fish that we need to catch.” That, and a bite from some New York reality TV show producers. Though he couldn’t say much, Stevens told Fox 26 that a reality show starring the pair is “officially a go.”
WATCH Hunter’s first catch of the season here:
