 Famed big-game angler Frank Mundus, in his book Sportsfishing for Sharks, recounted a tale in which a longline fisherman off the Carolinas leaned over the side of his boat to examine something large that he had hooked, and was decapitated by the caudal fin of a thresher shark estimated to be 5 m (16 ft) long. The head supposedly fell into the water and was never recovered. This account is considered highly improbable by most authors.
