Tag: Great white shark

Watch: Mako shark goes ballistic after taking hookless bait

A Southern California fisherman who tags sharks for research recorded what he described as a “monster mako splashdown” late Sunday near Santa Catalina Island.

A Southern California angler who tags sharks for research recorded what he described as a “monster mako splashdown” late Sunday near Santa Catalina Island.

Interestingly, the adult female mako shark took a live mackerel tied to a fishing line and jumped seven times against the drag of heavy tackle despite not being hooked.

The accompanying footage, captured by Keith Poe, shows four of the seven jumps.

A second video shows mako sharks taking Poe’s hookless baits and leaping in the dark to rock music.

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Poe, who tags sharks for the Marine Conservation Science Institute, told FTW Outdoors that he keeps hookless baits in the water to alert him when sharks arrive in the chum slick.

“When I want to tag a white shark or a mako shark, I use a hook and a handline,” Poe said.

Watch: Diver grabs tail of a great white shark in second encounter

While freediving, Nick Bailey spotted a great white shark for the first time and wished it could happen again so he could touch it. Then it did.

While freediving off Florida, Nick Bailey spotted a great white shark for the first time and, after watching video of his close encounter, wished it could happen again so he could touch it.

His wish came true the next day. This time, he swam toward the great white, and reached out and grabbed its tail, prompting the shark to calmly kick a bit stronger to get out of his reach.

Bailey kicked to the surface to announce his achievement.

“I touched a great white!” he exclaimed in the video. “Dude, two great whites in two days. That’s insane…Unreal experience.”

Bailey posted a video on Instagram that showed both encounters.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Nick Bailey (@nick__bailey15)

Bailey and Justin Shaw were diving about 4 miles off the coast of Stewart in 60 feet of water when Nick spotted the first great white shark and turned on his video, according to WPBF.

“I thought I saw a bull shark but really quickly I realized it was not a bull shark,” Bailey told WPBF.

“After I looked at the video, I realized I was like, man, I was so close to it. I was like, I really wish this could happen again and I could touch it like that would’ve been so cool.”

The next day while diving off the coast of Jupiter, it did happen again.

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“When I realized what it was, I was like, wow, this is happening,” Bailey told WPBF.

Shaw told WPBF the shark was just cruising the bottom “and Nick went down and I just follow behind them. I was just like super surprised. I’ve never seen them before and we see like hundreds of sharks every day we go out.”

WPBF said Bailey admitted it wasn’t smart to grab its tail. But he seemed to justify it.

“I know that sharks can change their behavior in a matter of seconds, but that thing, he was cool,” he told WPBF. “I knew what he wanted and he wanted nothing to do with me.”

Thankfully that was the case.

Angler jumps overboard to help land great white shark

A South Carolina-based sportfishing captain tagged and released a nearly 11-foot great white shark on Friday, but not without help from a brave passenger.

A South Carolina-based sportfishing captain tagged and released a nearly 11-foot great white shark on Friday, but not without help from a brave passenger.

Capt. Chip Michalove, who’s permitted to tag white sharks for research, had just baited the shark when it turned and swam beneath his boat, causing the line to become snagged on a large barnacle.

Michalove jiggled the line with a gaff. He put the reel into free spool to help prevent the line from breaking. But he knew the only way to land the shark was for someone to jump overboard and free the line from the barnacle.

Ben Friedman admiring great white shark after swimming near predator

Moments later, Ben Friedman, angler and TikTok star, was in the water alongside the apex predator.

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“I told Ben that he’s going to have to jump in to free the line from the barnacle if he wants to land this girl, and before I finished my sentence he was taking his shoes off,” Michalove, who runs Outcast Sport Fishing, wrote on Facebook. “It’s February, it’s freezing, and this guy hops in and swims under the boat to free it. And then stays in and convinces his camera guy to jump in, too.”

Capt. Chip Michalove during the tag-and-release process

Michalove told FTW Outdoors that the 10-foot, 8-inch shark was fitted with satellite tags once it had been reeled alongside the boat. Its weight was estimated at 750 pounds.

He conceded that Friedman had asked if he could swim alongside a hooked shark even before the charter began.

The white shark measured 10 feet, 8 inches and weighed about 750 pounds

“He brought up getting in the water, and as crazy as it seems, it’s common to have this request,” Michalove said. “I usually try and talk them out of it.”

Michalove explained that, in this case, circumstances aligned. He added: “There really isn’t as much of a threat, as the shark is under control on the side of the boat. I actually think popping the hook [from aboard the boat] is more dangerous than swimming next to it after a fight.”

Ben Friedman exiting the water after freeing the line

Michalove said Friedman signed a waiver before the trip. At the time of this post, Friedman had not responded to a request for a quote, and had not shared his footage publicly.

Watch: Great white shark grabs spotlight at popular surf spot

A 12-year-old surfer has shared video footage showing a great white shark breaching just beyond where she and her brother were riding waves.

A 12-year-old surfer has shared footage showing a great white shark breaching just beyond where she and her brother were riding waves in San Diego County.

Kaydn Persidok, of Encinitas, posted the footage to Instagram on Tuesday. It shows Kaydn and her brother Reef ripping small waves when, at 27 seconds, a juvenile white shark leaps clear of the surface.

“Anybody else feel a little sharky vibe yesterday out in the lineup?” Kaydn wrote.

The footage was captured at Seaside Reef, a North San Diego County spot popular among up-and-coming stars. Kaydn, who is part of the USA Surfing Olympic Development Team, recalled her experience to The CW San Diego:

“A little while before we saw the shark breach, my friend said she saw something that looked like a shark swim right under her, and right then it got suspicious! The water was a little murky because of the rain and it just felt sharky. Then as we saw it breach my heart raced and I was amazed and stunned but also a bit scared because it wasn’t too far away from us!”

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Kaydn added: “I respect the ocean and all the wildlife and creatures in it! I think it’s really cool to see a shark breach while a surfer is riding a wave! I’ve never seen that before.”

Juvenile white sharks have been spotted sporadically for the past several months close to San Diego beaches, especially the Del Mar area.

Chris Lowe, who runs the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, told FTW Outdoors:

“We’ve still got a dozen or so juvenile white sharks hanging out at Del Mar. Some have been there almost a year now.”

Juvenile white sharks, which can measure 10-plus feet, prey mostly on stingrays and other bottom fishes and are most commonly seen along the Southern California coast in summer and early fall.

After fatal attack on surfer, one great white shark grabs spotlight

After a fatal shark attack involving a bodyboarder on Christmas Eve off Morro Bay, Ca., a prominent researcher could not say whether one of the great white sharks tagged by his group was involved.

After a shark killed a bodyboarder on Christmas Eve off Morro Bay, Ca., a prominent researcher could not say whether one of the great white sharks tagged by his group was involved.

“I’ve gotten a lot of messages because of the unfortunate fatal shark encounter at The Pit (Morro Bay),” Michael Domeier, president of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, stated on Instagram. “A male bodyboarder was bitten and he succumbed to the injuries. First, my heart goes out to the family and friends of the victim.

“Second, no I don’t know if the shark was Poe Girl, or any of our other tagged sharks. The probability of it being one of our sharks is very low, since we’ve tagged such a small percentage of the overall population.”

The victim, a 31-year-old man, has not been officially identified.

Poe Girl, an adult female white shark measuring 17-plus feet, was tagged off Point Conception for MCSI by Keith Poe on Nov. 23, 2017.

On Christmas Day, Poe Girl pinged a position 24 miles south of Morro Bay. Domeier acknowledged to FTW Outdoors that “she could have easily been in Morro Bay that day, but that’s all one can say about it. There are so many other white sharks around, there’s no way to say it was her.”

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MCSI-tagged sharks can be tracked by the public via an app, but a shark has to surface under the right conditions to reveal a new position.

Since Poe Girl was tagged she has traveled extensively to the west and south, even inside Mexico’s Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortez. Understandably, she’s often detected closer to Central California home waters, where she and other white sharks prey seasonally on elephant seals.

In mid-November, Poe Girl was positioned beyond Surf Beach at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, south of Morro Bay.

Fatal shark encounters occurred at Surf Beach almost exactly two years apart in October 2010 and 2012. A nonfatal bite, also attributed to a white shark, occurred in 2014. (Surf Beach is accessible to the public.)

In October, Poe Girl was positioned off El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara.

“She is not your everyday Southern California juvenile; she’s a massive adult that you should avoid,” Domeier cautioned surfers at the time, via Instagram.

Poe told FTW Outdoors that on a tagging expedition to Point Conception last month, “I had white sharks at my boat hundreds of times. There are so many, it’s incredible.”

So there’s nothing that implicates Poe Girl in the Christmas Eve attack (or any other), besides the fact that she was in the general vicinity at the time.

Her presence might be unnerving, but most surfers are aware that they share the ocean with untagged sharks, too, and accept the extremely low risk of being bitten every time they paddle out.

–Top image shows Morro Rock   

Hawaii diver captures rare great white shark encounter on video

A Hawaii-based photographer was astonished Friday to spot a 15-foot great white shark swimming toward him off Kona on the Big Island.

A Hawaii-based photographer was astonished Friday to spot a 15-foot great white shark swimming toward him off Kona on the Big Island.

Deron Verbeck told FTW Outdoors that he was freediving and first spotted the shark about 100 feet below the surface. “But she turned and came up into about 30 feet when I got all the shots and video,” he said.

The accompanying video shows the shark’s close approach as Verbeck captures video footage with a GoPro while also shooting stills. (Video is best viewed with volume.)

Great white shark sightings are rare in Hawaii, but adult white sharks from Mexico and California seasonally visit island waters.

After the encounter, Verbeck joked on Facebook: “Well check this one off the list of things ‘I shouldn’t have been swimming with.’ My first ever GREAT WHITE SHARK! And it happened to be in Kona and a 5-minute drive from my house!”

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The renowned freediver told KHON 2 that he first thought he had spotted a tiger shark but quickly recognized the classic shape of a large female white shark.

“It just kept getting bigger and bigger and I was like, ‘That is for sure, 100% a great white,’ ” Verbeck said. “And I just shot as much as I could as she went by, and she just disappeared back off the drop, then I was just shaking like, ‘Woah! That was insane!’ ”

The shark, although inquisitive, did not seem to regard Verbeck as prey.

Carl Meyer of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology told KHON 2 that white sharks might be attracted to island waters by the seasonal abundance of humpback whales. (White sharks are known to feast on whale carcasses.)

Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute stated on Instagram that “after a quick scan” the shark did not match any of the nearly 400 white sharks in the photo-identification catalog from Mexico’s Guadalupe Island.

Deep Blue, said by some to be the largest great white shark ever documented, measuring about 20 feet, is in the Guadalupe Island database and has been spotted in Hawaiian waters.

Domeier said his research team suspects that “this beautiful female is from the Central California Tribe or Pt. Conception Tribe” of white sharks.

Domeier stated that the shark “was spotted literally right in front of my house. This is the stuff that gets me out of bed in the morning with a smile!”

Verbeck is an award-winning photographer who specializes in shooting while freediving, or on a single breath without scuba gear. Many of his photos are shared via Instagram.

Great white shark tracked to ‘infamous’ California surfing beach

A great white shark has been hanging out near shore at a popular California surfing destination known for shark attacks.

A great white shark has been hanging out near shore at a popular California surfing destination known for shark attacks.

Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute stated via Instagram Friday that the female white shark was positioned off “infamous” Surf Beach at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc.

Fatal shark attacks occurred in that area, north of Santa Barbara, almost exactly two years apart in October 2010 and 2012. A nonfatal attack, also attributed to a great white shark, occurred in 2014. (Surf Beach is open to the public.)

The tagged white shark currently off Surf Beach is named Betty White. She was a sub-adult 12-foot female when she was tagged off Southern California in 2020.

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Dozens of sharks tagged by the MCSI can be tracked via the group’s Expedition White Shark app.

The app on Friday and Saturday showed Betty White on land near Lompoc.

Domeier, MCSI president and executive director, explained that the peculiar  positioning “just demonstrates the imprecision of location estimates that are based on the Doppler Effect.”

Still, the sight of a yellow dorsal fin marker well inland inspired attempts at humor beneath Domeier’s post.

“You sure Betty wasn’t hitting up the Starbucks in Albertsons?” one person commented.

To which Domeier replied: “Or maybe looking for a CA dispensary before heading back to [Hawaii].”

–Generic white shark image courtesy of ©Pete Thomas

‘Very chunky’ great white shark leaves researchers in awe

Cape Cod-based researchers were astonished recently, while reviewing footage, to spot a male great white shark with such extraordinarily girth.

Researchers were astonished recently, while reviewing footage, to spot a male great white shark with such extraordinarily girth.

The largest and fattest white sharks are females, especially during pregnancies. (They can measure nearly 20 feet and weigh 5,000-plus pounds.)

The accompanying image was captured by the Cape Cod-based Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which commented this week on Facebook:

“There are some sharks that make our data team stop and take a double-take. One of our data team members was analyzing GoPro footage, they came across this very chunky, male, white shark.”

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White sharks are ambush feeders that prey largely on seals and other pinnipeds. They’ll also feast on whale carcasses if the opportunity arrises. So it stands to reason that male sharks might exhibit considerably more girth after mealtime.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy added: “Our data team can assume that the shark recently ate due to the size of its stomach.”

–White shark image courtesy of Atlantic White Shark Conservancy

‘Massive’ great white shark visits popular Santa Barbara surf spot

A researcher on Friday cautioned that a 17-foot great white shark was cruising just beyond the shore of El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara.

A researcher on Friday cautioned that a 17-foot great white shark was cruising just beyond the shore of El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara.

“She is not your everyday Southern California juvenile; she’s a massive adult that you should avoid,” Michael Domeier, Executive Director of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, stated via Instagram.

The white shark’s name is Poe Girl, named by Keith Poe, who tagged the shark in 2017 as part of an ongoing MCSI tagging and monitoring project.

Domeier’s Instagram post piqued the interest of his many followers, including surfers who had been riding waves at El Capitan on Friday.

“No way! I was just out there in the water and came in and told my friend I thought I saw a shark and he sent me this post,” one follower wrote. “I am about 99% sure I just saw her dorsal fin surface about 50 yards past the lineup.”

Another surfer claimed to have spotted a shark “with a dorsal fin the size of a traffic cone” and added, “The lonely other thing I thought it could be was an orca because no dolphin could be that big.”

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Another follower chimed in, “I’m more scared of the juvenile curious taste test than the adult who knows that we don’t have much meat on us.”

Answered Domeier: “Juvenile white sharks eat fish, stingrays and other sharks. Adult white sharks eat seals, sea lions and porpoise. Adults are more likely to bite a person than a juvenile.”

It seems, however, that any threat posed by Poe Girl has been somewhat alleviated. As of Saturday morning, according to the app, Poe Girl had moved considerably farther offshore.

But, of course, that does not mean that she won’t turn around for another visit.

–Note: The public can follow the movements of Poe Girl and dozens of other tagged sharks via the MCSI’s Expedition White Shark app.

 

Dentally challenged great white shark greets divers

Great white sharks often shed teeth while attacking prey or biting other objects, but replacement teeth quickly fill voids.

Great white sharks often shed teeth while attacking prey or biting other objects, but replacement teeth quickly fill voids. The apex predators, in fact, might grow as many as 20,000 teeth in a lifetime.

So after a cage-diving company photographed a white shark missing many of its front teeth during an expedition to Mexico’s Guadalupe Island earlier this week, owner Martin Graf featured the image on Instagram, writing:

“Anyone know a good dentist? It’s a good thing that white sharks can replace their teeth.”

Graf, who runs the San Diego-based Shark Diver ecotour company, told FTW Outdoors that the juvenile white shark was going after a hang bait placed behind the boat on Sunday.

Hang baits attract sharks so divers in cages can observe and photograph the predators at close proximity.

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“It’s pretty unusual for a shark to have that many missing teeth,” Graf acknowledged, adding that he did not know at what point or how this shark lost so many of its teeth.

Graf added: “Sometimes they lose their teeth when they bite into a big prey, especially if they hit a bone in their prey animal.”

Guadalupe Island,  165 miles west of the Baja California port of Ensenada, is one of the world’s premier destinations for cage diving with great white sharks.

The season typically runs from late July into early November. Many sharks possess unique markings and are documented in a photo-ID catalog.

Graf, however, said there was too much activity to single out this shark for a possible identification. “We don’t know from this picture what shark it was” he said. “We saw 30 different sharks on this trip and they were all super active.”

–Image courtesy of Shark Diver