Fisherman Hugs Live Shark After Catching It (VIDEO)

OCEAN CITY, MD — A Maryland fisherman has made waves online with a video of his catch. Zane Rutt, 21, of Bel Air, caught a shark, picked it up out of the water, released it and picked it up again for a photo op. His friend captured it on video, which Rutt posted Aug. 8 to Instagram.

Since then, more than 34,000 people have viewed the video, and the reaction has not always been positive.

"I'm very surprised that so many people have viewed this," Rutt told Patch. "I never would have guessed it would have received this much attention and hate."

Once the shark was on the line, Rutt removed the circle hook from its mouth and flipped it onto its back, something called "tonic immobility" that he said he learned about through his own research.

Tonic immobility occurs when an animal "plays dead" because it is safer to freeze than to fight a predator.

"...while in the water my friend John had asked me if I wanted a photo," Rutt recalled. "I said sure, and he said, 'Well, it's a video'...so I went with it."

A tidal wave of comments flooded in, as the video reached shores around the world, with a range of reactions. "Leave the sharks alone. Seriously, this is not OK," one Instagram commenter said. Another replied: "I didn't know hugging sharks could be so offensive to some people."

An Australian media outlet broadcast the video with the headline "US Man Torments Shark for a Selfie," while an environmental news network dubbed it a "waltz with a sand tiger shark" and reported that if someone releases a sand shark in the water, it is a gray area that is not in violation of Maryland law.

That said, Ocean City lawmakers this week banned shark fishing from the beach after people — including children — were releasing sharks close to shore in areas where people tend to swim and posing for selfies with the animals, according to The Dispatch.

So was Rutt afraid during his moment on camera?

"I'm never scared to interact with a shark," Rutt said. "As a matter of fact, I'm very comfortable with them. I am aware of how they move and what they can do."

Maryland Natural Resources Police declined to comment other than to say that there was no way for the agency to verify the video's authenticity.

Rutt is involved with ocsharkhunter, a catch-and-release shark fishing page on Instagram, where he posted his most recent shark video. Screenshot from Instagram video used with permission of Zane Rutt.