A veteran angler says he saw a megamouth, the 18th viewing ever.

One of the most rarely seen creatures in the sea - a blubbery megamouth shark - was spotted by a veteran swordfisherman off the breakwater Monday close to where an earlier megamouth sighting caused a media sensation.

Monday's reported encounter represents only the 18th time a megamouth has been seen anywhere in the world since the species was first discovered and named in 1976. And this appears to be the largest one seen yet.

"It was 20 feet to 25 feet long and weighed about 5 tons," said Scott Caldwell, 51, of San Clemente, who operates the Leslie Anne out of Dana Point. "From a distance, it looked like a great white. But when we got closer, it was, whoa, that looks like the pictures of megamouths I've seen."

Caldwell confirmed that he'd seen a megamouth by reviewing scientific renderings of the shark, once pegged at a maximum of about 17 feet.

"We don't actually know how large megamouths get because we've seen so few of them," said John Heyning, deputy director of research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Caldwell happened upon the megamouth at about 11 a.m. Monday while he and three other people aboard Leslie Anne were searching for thresher sharks two miles off the breakwater. The sighting occurred five miles east of where a 16-foot, 5-inch male megamouth was inadvertently captured by gill-net fishermen in October 1990.

The gill-netters tied a rope around that shark's tail, temporarily preventing the megamouth from descending. Dozens of reporters and scientists raced to the scene.

The shark, which seemed to ignore the media onslaught, struck many as menacing, with its bulbous head, eyes as big as silver dollars and 3-foot-wide mouth. But megamouths are docile filter-feeders.

"I'm mad at myself and my crew for not taking a picture," Caldwell said Monday. "We had a camera. Things happened so fast, we didn't think to use it."

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