Famous Florida Fisherman Hooks 800-pound "Dinosaur" Hookskate

A long-time Florida fisherman hooked what he called a "dinosaur" in the waters off Miami Beach. Captain Mark Quartiano, known locally as "Mark the Shark," caught an 800-pound hookskate.

Hookskates (Dactylobatus clarkii) are little known deepwater creatures that tend to rest on the muddy bottoms of continental slopes of the western-central and southwest Atlantic Ocean.

Quartiano told CBS Miami that he caught the giant hookskate while he was shooting a series of shows with a Japanese television network. After snapping photos of the catch and posting one to Instagram, the charter boat captain tagged the hookskate and released it back into the ocean.

In an interview with ABC News, Quartiano said he has been leading charter fishing operations for the past three decades and that he has caught a hookskate before, but never one as big as this.

"It's a very rare fish. It's like a big gigantic whipping stingray. It's a dinosaur," he said.

Hookskates, also known as fingerskates, are so poorly understood that the Internatioinal Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) does not have sufficient data to rank the hookskate on its Red List of Threatened Species.

"The Hookskate (Dactylobatus clarkii) is a medium-sized (to at least 75 cm TL) but poorly known, deepwater skate with a patchy distribution in the western central and southwest Atlantic. It occurs on muddy bottoms of the continental slope at depths of 315-915 m. It is a potential bycatch of deepwater demersal fisheries, although no information is available. Due to the limited knowledge of its biology and extent of capture in fisheries, this species is presently assessed as Data Deficient. Research into this species' abundance, distribution, life-history and population trends is required to enable future reassessment," the IUCN states on its Red List entry for the hookskate.

Quartiano told ABC his catch measured about 14 feet long from the tail and was caught in 500 feet of water.

"It was very old. It had barnacles all over it," said Quartiano, adding that he released it because he could see no useful purpose behind keeping it.

"Stingrays are usually pretty good to eat, but this one as table fare? I don't know how that would work out," he told ABC.