DEPOE BAY, Ore. - The fisherman who caught a great white shark off the Oregon Coast over the weekend and brought it to shore in Depoe Bay was cited according to one source. KATU.com is verifying the information from that source.

The shark was brought in on Saturday by a recreational tuna boat. It is against state and federal law to have a great white shark.   

According to the Oregon State Police, the fisherman claimed the shark got caught in his crab pots.  But the harbor master said, as remarkable a catch as it was, the fisherman should have never brought it into port.

"Being a harbor master, I know the rules," said Phil Shane. "Apparently, this guy didn't because he pulled it in right in front of police officers."

A YouTube video shows the shark being dragged ashore and displayed for onlookers (CAUTION, video is bloody in some sections).

According to the Hatfield Marine Science Center, there is no way to tell what killed the shark. The fisherman gutted it and the vital organs needed for a necropsy were removed before the shark was seized by the Oregon State Police. 

The shark was later released to the Hatfield Marine Science Center, which was able to positively identify it as a great white shark.

It is rare to see a great white shark, let alone catch one, off the Oregon coast.

There have been shark sightings along the northern part of the Oregon coast in the past few days.

UPDATE TUESDAY:

Though KATU originally received a report that a fisherman involved in this event had been cited, thanks to reader input at KATU.com we have received information from the Oregon State Police saying that no citation has been issued.

There are, however, other agencies that could be involved in a fishing-related citation.

As such, we called the deputy administrator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Rick Hargrave. He informed us that a citation would not be issued by that agency. "The ODFW doesn't necessarily get involved in [ocean] issues," he said. "These animals are regulated by the fed, but because they came into Oregon shores the OSP [Oregon State Police] takes any action if there was a violation."

The U.S. Coast Guard District 13 spokesperson, Kelly Parker, told us that the coast guard does enforce federal fishing laws. He has not heard of any citations issued, at least for the main fishermen.

"But there may have been other cases, or other areas," Parker said. He's checking his sources to uncover any other shark-related citations at the time. "As far as Depoe Bay, we do enforce there, and we have vessels out there to make sure the fishing vessels are abiding the law, and our helicopters are out there looking for that too."

The Marine Fisheries Service's Northwest National Fisheries Science Center also has citation authority. No one there was immediately available for inquiries.

Finally, we spoke to the owner of the boat that initially found the shark, snared in one of its crab pots, and a passenger on that boat. Their responses are pasted below.

Dick Teeny, owner of boat: "Nobody was cited in the port that I know of, not on our boat, or around us, or anyone that we've seen. State troopers spent three or four hours down there. We contacted people in the fishing industry and we were told that the fish would be sent to Oregon State University [which has a marine science division].

The coast guard did a boat inspection. There was no ticket issued.

Our choice was either cut the rope and let it sink, or try to do something positive with it. I didn't want to just let it go for crab bait, so we made a decision to just let it go to OSU for the marine science center because it's Shark Week.

We talked to people in the iFish community (ifish.net) and the Coastal Conservation Association and we were told to bring it in to the marina ... I've fished and hunted all my life, and I know dead when I see it. The shark was dead [when we found him], and there is no truth to the report that it came back alive in the parking lot. [NOTE: An earlier reportedly eye-witness report claimed someone had almost been bit by the shark in the parking lot.]

I made a decision as to what one would do with it, and there was a decision to bring it in to port and turn it over and I think that decision was correct. It just seems like a waste to just let it sink. A lot of people don't feel that way. They think that if we could have brought it back to life and let it feed on a few sea lions that would be a positive thing....

After that, I'm up in the boat and the shark sat there for about 30, 40 minutes with troopers around, and the first trooper was kind of reluctant to take it down. My friend [JJ] made the decision to take it down, because I think fish have a lot of acid in them so he made the decision to take it down."

So KATU.com turned to his friend JJ Robinson. Robinson was with Teeny as they were out on what he said was intended to be just an informal Tuna sport fishing trip. It was Robinson that made the determination to gut the shark after landing. Here's JJ Robinson's response: 

"No citings yet. We tried to contact Oregon Fish and Wildlife immediately after the fish was caught.

Enforcement officials in Depoe Bay kind of waved us off and had no information about what to do in case of a Great White Shark.

The only enforcement officials that I talked to at Fish and Wildlife didn't know what to do with it. They thought it wasn't covered under any of the game regulations, so they just let us have it and waved us off.

We didn't want it to become rotten. Sharks have a bunch of uric acid inside them, and it starts leaching into their meat and outer body as soon as it's dead. Because the Dept of Wildlife officers didn't decide to do anything with it initially we decided to disembowel it so we would not receive a Wanton Waste Violation, which is written for intentional waste of game species. We initially recommended that the police take it to OSU. They figured out it would probably be the best...

They [Oregon State Police] had three hours to determine what type of species it was, and were still undecided, so they eventually did take it to OSU to determine the species and figure out what to do with it.

We've been trying to communicate with the enforcement officials in Depoe Bay and we haven't had any communication since."