Richard Vogel / AP

Kent Williams, owner of New Fishall Bait Company, looks into the mouth of a 1,323.5-pound Mako shark at the company's headquarters in Gardena, Calif., on Wednesday, June 5, 2013. Jason Johnston of Texas caught the potentially record-setting 1,323-pound shark off Huntington Beach on Monday after a 2 1/2-hour battle, the Orange County Register reported.

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"I've hunted lions and brown bears, but I've never experienced anything like this," said Jason Johnston of Texas, who caught the 1,323-pound shark off Huntington Beach on Monday after a 2 1/2-hour battle, "It felt like I had a one-ton diesel truck at the end of the line, and it wasn't budging."

If the catch is confirmed and meets conditions, it would exceed the 1,221-pound record mako catch made in July 2001 off the coast of Chatham, Mass., said Jack Vitek, world records coordinator for the Florida-based International Game Fish Association. It takes about two months for the association to verify domestic catches. Continue reading

Richard Vogel / AP

Rows of teeth from a possible record-setting Mako shark caught by a fisherman off the coast of California.

Richard Vogel / AP

A Mako shark caught by a fisherman off the coast of California sits in a tank at New Fishall Bait Company in Gardena, Calif., on Wednesday, June 5, 2013.

 More sharks in PhotoBlog:

• Backlash forces shark fin traders onto Hong Kong rooftops
• Whale shark dies after becoming stranded on Indonesia beach
• Pakistani man fights police over 40-foot shark

Antony Dickson / AFP - Getty Images

Shark fins drying in the sun cover the roof of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.

Paul Hilton / EPA

Approximately 18 thousand shark fins are left out to dry on top of an industrial building in Hong Kong's Kennedy Town district on Jan. 2, 2013.

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Shark fins, which cost between HK$2,880 ($369) and HK$3,580 ($459) per Chinese catty (1 pound), are seen on display inside a dried seafood store in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.

Shark fin traders in Hong Kong have taken to drying freshly sliced fins on rooftops since a public outcry over them drying the fins on public sidewalks forced them to move the trade out of sight. 

Activists have raised concerns that the over-harvesting of fins is causing an environmental calamity. Although sales have fallen in recent years Hong Kong remains one of the world's biggest markets for shark fins, which are used to make soup that is an expensive staple at Chinese banquets.  

-- European Pressphoto Agency, Agence France-Presse, Reuters

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Thousands of pieces of shark fin are dried on the rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. The fins were shipped from an unknown location and unloaded at a nearby pier to be dried on the rooftop.

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Workers lay out pieces of shark fin to dry on a rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. Local sales of the luxurious gourmet food have fallen in recent years due to its controversial nature, but activists demand a total shark fin ban in the city, labelled by some as the shark fin capital of the world.

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Ben Nelms / Reuters

Jon Planes holds a large Soupfin shark (Galeorhinus galeus) aboard the Ocean Sunset in the Pacific Ocean off of Ucluelet, British Columbia, June 24, 2012.

Reuters reports — The Ocean Sunset is a commercial fishing boat that hunts sharks as well as other fish for their meat and fins. After the fishermen catch them, dogfish sharks are sent to a processing plant to be cut and distributed. The fins are removed and the body is skinned. The bellies are exported to Germany where they are smoked and sold as beer-garden pub food. The fins are removed and sent to Asia where they are used in shark fin soup - a delicacy in Chinese culture. Animal rights advocates criticize the shark fin harvest but others say that eating shark fins is an old cultural tradition.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers the Soupfin shark vulnerable to extinction. The animal was the mainstay of the shark fishery “boom” between 1936 and 1944, when over 24 million pounds were landed, according to the IUCN.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Images made available to NBC News on Dec. 6

Ben Nelms / Reuters

Newly caught dogfish sharks are pulled aboard the Ocean Sunset commercial fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean off of Ucluelet, British Columbia, June 25.

Ben Nelms / Reuters

A family eats shark fin soup at Vancouver's Grand Honor Chinese restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 1.

Ben Nelms / Reuters

A shark fin from a Chinese Herbal store is photographed in a studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 6.

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Dwi Oblo / Reuters

A rescue team member tries to tie a rope around a whale shark that died after being stranded on Parangkusumo beach, near Yogyakarta, Indonesia,  Aug. 4. It is the second whale shark to die after being stranded near Yogyakarta this week. The first was found dead 5 miles west three days ago. PhotoBlog featured a post on the incident: Whale shark dies after becoming stranded on Indonesia beach

Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

Some 120 shark dorsal fins seized to fishermen by the navy in the Caribbean Sea are incinerated in Tegucigalpa, on Thursday. Honduras created the first shark sanctuary one year ago.

Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

Some 120 shark dorsal fins seized from fishermen by the navy before their incineration in Tegucigalpa.

The Tico Times reports that environment officials from Costa Rica and Honduras proposed protections for hammerhead sharks:

Scalloped hammerheads are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are in high demand for shark fin soup and account for about 4 percent of all shark fins in international trade.

Government delegates from the 175 CITES member countries will vote on the hammerhead and other possible shark protection proposals at next year’s meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which will take place March 3-15 in Thailand.

See images of sharks in PhotoBlog.

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Remember the shark the size of a school bus that starred on PhotoBlog Tuesday? Well, it's back... and it's causing a stir. 

Fareed Khan / AP

Visitors surround the carcass of a whale shark in Karachi, Pakistan, on Feb 9, 2012. People crowded around to put their hands on the massive shark, and families snapped their picture with it — ignoring the pungent smell as it began to rot.

Ashraf Khan of The Associated Press takes up the story:

KARACHI, Pakistan — Qasim Khan waged the unlikeliest of battles with Pakistani authorities Thursday over the right to charge hundreds of curious visitors 20 rupees (22 cents) each to see a roughly 40-foot whale shark he bought from a fisherman.

Khan is in the business of buying fish, albeit usually much smaller ones, and jumped at the chance on Tuesday to pay about $2,200 for the 20-ton behemoth, which was discovered dead in the Arabian Sea off the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

Business was brisk Wednesday, as several thousand people paid to see the brown and white-spotted shark, which Khan set up under a cloth tent next to the harbor. 

But police cracked down Thursday, saying fishery authorities had decided people should be allowed to see the shark for free. Khan resisted and hid his prize attraction under the giant piece of green cloth he had previously used as a tent.

Fareed Khan / AP

A boy peeks inside a tent where the carcass was being kept. One visitor, 9-year-old Fizza Umar, said "It was so huge! I wish I could take it home."

Shakil Adil / AP

A man sells tickets to people eager to see the shark.

The move sparked a comic game of cat and mouse between Khan and the police. They would order him to remove the cover, which he would do briefly before replacing it. Then the cycle would start over again.

Khan countered by saying he paid 200,000 rupees for it. "To recover my cost I am charging just 20 rupees per ticket, but the forsaken fishery authorities have deprived me of this fortune," he said. Read the full story.

Fareed Khan / AP

Some in the crowd were upset to see people climbing all over the shark. "This is sheer disrespect for animals," said 20-year-old nursing student Usman Zada.

Fishermen in the Pakistani port of Karachi got more than they bargained for Tuesday as they reeled in one of the biggest fish in the sea: a whale shark.

The Express Tribune, a Pakistani newspaper, reported that the 40-foot fish was first spotted ten days ago in seas about 150 km (93 miles) from the city. Mehmood Khan, the owner of a local fishery, said the shark was unconscious at that time and other reports said that it was found dead Tuesday. 

A large crowd gathered as a succession of cranes were brought in to lift the shark on to the pier. After several hours and a number of failed attempts, the leviathan was finally brought ashore and promptly sold for 1.7m Rupees ($18,750).

The whale shark was added to the World Conservation Union's list of threatened species in 2008.

Rehan Khan / EPA

Fishermen tie ropes around the carcass of a whale shark in a harbor in Karachi, Pakistan, on Feb. 7, 2012. The 40-foot whale shark was said to have been found dead in the Arabian Sea.

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

Cranes pull the carcass of the whale shark from the water on Feb. 7, 2012.

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

Curious onlookers crowd around the carcass after it was lifted out of the water on Feb. 7, 2012.

Find out what happened to the shark next in this update: Pakistani man fights police over 40-foot shark.

Here's a selection of images of the new aquarium at Aqua Zone in Hong Kong, featuring some 5,000 marine animals of over 400 species.

Ym Yik / EPA

Small fish swim in front of a Grey Nurse Shark at the Grand Aquarium during the opening ceremony of Aqua City in Ocean Park in Hong Kong.

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Visitors stand in front of a giant aquarium at its opening in Aqua City, the new flagship marine-themed zone of the Hong Kong Ocean Park, Jan. 26.

Vincent Yu / AP

An aquarium is seen at the opening in Aqua City, the new flagship marine-themed zone of the Hong Kong Ocean Park Wednesday, Jan. 26.

Mike Clarke / AFP - Getty Images

Visitors take a look at a new giant aquarium in Hong Kong, Jan. 26. The aquarium at a local theme park contains over 5,000 marine animals and is one of the top ten largest in the world.

Vincent Yu / AP

A man walks past an aquarium at the opening in Aqua City, Jan. 26.