Shark Weekend In New Jersey: Here's Where (Video)

It may be Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, but New Jersey had its own version of reality TV programming this weekend off the Jersey Shore.

There were at least three incidents involving sharks in the waters off the Jersey Shore — including the discovery of possibly the largest mako shark ever found off the coast.

They followed a series of sightings that have happened at the Jersey Shore this summer. We've had sharks nearing 1,000 pounds swimming off the coast, while others have found sharks that were small enough to grab with their hands.

Here is what happened:

• A 926-pound mako shark was caught off Monmouth County on Saturday morning. It appears to be the heaviest shortfin mako caught off New Jersey in recorded history. The 12-foot shark, which was weighed in at Hoffman's Marina in Brielle, is 70 pounds heavier than the current state record, an 856-pounder caught in 1994. "It took up the whole cockpit," said Capt. Dave Bender, owner of the Jenny Lee, the boat that caught the fish. Read more here...
• A boat sunk in shark-infested waters off the Jersey Shore, and two people who were aboard were rescued this weekend. Coast Guard crews and a good Samaritan rescued the two people 40 miles south of Sandy Hook Friday after their boat sank. At 9:39 a.m., watchstanders at the first Coast Guard District command center received a distress alert from the 35-foot center console boat, 40 miles off of the coast of Sandy Hook, according to a Coast Guard release. They soon discovered the boat. Read more here...
• A great white shark that's been tagged by researchers was spotted off the Jersey Shore on Friday evening. The shark, whose name is Hilton, pinged about 60 miles off Atlantic City at 9:21 p.m. The 12-foot, 1,300-pound male shark was tagged by OCEARCH, a science research organization that tags sharks and monitors their travel. OCEARCH made note of the shark's visit on Twitter on Friday night. Read more here...

Other sharks were recently spotted during the week off the New Jersey coastline, including one that was caught on video on July 18:

Mary Lee, another tagged great white shark, has been cruising off the New Jersey coast and signaled off Island Beach State Park last month, according to OCEARCH. The shark tracker showed four satellite pings in one day from the massive female great white, who was 16 feet and more than 3,400 pounds when she was first tagged in September 2012. Read more here...

A 3-foot shark was captured by the unidentified man who used both of his bare hands in the Long Beach Island waves last week. Lifeguards had pulled people from the waves while the shark capture was taking place, the WPDH video shows. Read more here...

Some researchers have said the sightings could indicate the beginnings of a shark habitat that oceanographers say they’ve seen develop elsewhere in the United States and eventually lead to an increase in sightings.

Michael L. Domeier, president of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, told Patch the New York Bight — an area of the Atlantic Ocean from Cape May to Montauk Point on Long Island — could be experiencing what happened on the West Coast.

Read more: WATCH: Shark Habitat Could Be Forming Off New Jersey

YouTube video/photo