The yellowfin tuna was hooked at Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, which is seasonal home to great white sharks.
A fishing-themed social media site on Saturday shared a “throwback” image showing an angler posing with the head of a large yellowfin tuna.
BDOutdoors’ Instagram description was somewhat predictable: “Paying his dues to the local taxman,” followed by a shark emoji.
The image was captured at Mexico’s Guadalupe Island before the designated biosphere reserve was ordered closed to sportfishing and commercial shark diving.
Guadalupe Island, 160 miles west of Ensenada, is seasonal home to dozens of great white sharks.
When long-range sportfishing vessels from San Diego were allowed to fish at Guadalupe, tuna were routinely snatched from hooks before they could be reeled to the boats.
The term “taxman,” however, is used around the world in reference to fish-stealing sharks.
The massive tiger shark washed up dead this week, but beachgoers were unsuccessful in keeping it on the beach.
A large tiger shark carcass washed shore on Nantucket off Cape Cod, Mass., Tuesday, in a rare event that piqued the interest of scientists.
Unfortunately, the shark washed back to sea despite the efforts of beachgoers to secure the apex predator.
“This is really early to see this species in the area,” shark researcher John Chisholm explained Friday via X. “If you find it please let me know so we can perform a necropsy.”
Chisholm was responding to multiple social-media reports by the Nantucket Current, including the accompanying video post that shows a man trying to pull the massive shark ashore by its tail fin.
An unusual & sad sight on the south shore this week. A tiger shark washed up dead on Tuesday.
It is relatively rare to see a tiger shark in the waters around Nantucket, and especially in spring when water temperatures are still low. pic.twitter.com/WpKNVtOYua
“An unusual & sad sight on the south shore this week,” the Nantucket Current stated. “It is relatively rare to see a tiger shark in the waters around Nantucket, and especially in spring when water temperatures are still low.”
Tiger sharks, named for the vertical stripes on their bodies, are found in tropical to warm-temperate waters around the world. They’re among the world’s largest sharks and can measure to about 18 feet.
Tiger sharks are opportunistic predators and expert ambush hunters. According to the Florida Museum, they are second only to great white sharks “in terms of the number of reported attacks on humans.”
As to why the shark might have been off Nantucket in the spring, the Nantucket Current cited a recent study by NOAA and the University of Miami that “found that warming ocean waters had expanded tiger sharks’ seasonal distribution in the northwest Atlantic.”
Tiger sharks are much more likely to be spotted off Florida at this time of year.
The 46-year-old man suffered serious injuries when the presumed great white shark bit his torso. Area beaches are closed until Tuesday.
A 46-year-old man was hospitalized with serious injuries Sunday after being attacked by a shark while swimming off Del Mar in San Diego County.
ABC News 10 reports that the man was distance training with other swimmers about 100 yards offshore when the shark struck at about 9 a.m.
The unidentified man was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla with injuries to his torso, left arm and hand. He is expected to survive.
The incident occurred beyond the Beach Safety Center at 17th Street, according to NBC News 7.
Lifeguards closed area beaches to swimming and surfing until 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Juvenile white sharks prey largely on rays and other types of fish, while adult white sharks prey mostly on seals and sea lions.
In November 2022, a 50-year-old woman survived an attack by a presumed white shark while swimming 200 yards offshore in Del Mar.
Lyn Jutronich, the victim, was quoted afterward by ABC News:
“I saw it clamp on my leg so I don’t know if I saw it bite my leg or if I saw it after it bit my leg but I definitely saw the mouth. It was on my right leg and it shook once, kind of like a dog, and it let me go.”
A group of South Carolina business partners on Sunday teamed to land a massive tiger shark that weighed an estimated 1,500 pounds.
A group of South Carolina business partners on Sunday teamed to land a tiger shark that weighed an estimated 1,500 pounds.
“If that wasn’t a great team-building exercise, I don’t know what is,” Capt. Chip Michalove told FTW Outdoors.
Michalove, owner of Outcast Sport Fishing in Hilton Head, did not provide the anglers’ names but said they fought the shark for 90 minutes before it was alongside the boat. (The shark was released after a brief photo session.)
“Largest one we’ve caught in years, a 13-footer,” Michalove boasted Monday via Facebook.
Any tiger shark topping 1,000 pounds is considered to be enormous.
For comparison, the International Game Fish Assn. lists the world record as a tie between a catches of 1,785 pounds, 11 ounces (Australia, 2004) and 1,780 pounds (South Carolina, 1964).
(The 1964 catch was made from a Myrtle Beach pier!)
13-foot tiger shark moments before it was released. Photo: Chip Michalove
Michalove, who in July 2022 caught and released a record-size hammerhead shark, explained that giant tiger sharks tend to be active off South Carolina in the fall.
“It seems like every year the largest tiger is always the last two weeks of October,” he said. “Last year we lost an enormous one on Halloween.”
Michalove, who is authorized to tags sharks for research, said he has caught several of the same large tiger sharks over the years.
Tiger shark was landed after a 90-minute fight. Photo: Chip Michalove
But the shark his group caught Sunday did not have a tag and did not show markings that would imply it had previously been tagged.
Asked about how the anglers handled the fight, Michalove explained:
“The fight was an hour and a half. It took all four customers multiple rod swaps to get her close. One of the guys was a pastor, and that always seems beneficial.”
A hunter’s Chesapeake retriever was killed by a shark Wednesday after leaping from a boat to fetch a downed duck.
[anyclip-media thumbnail=”undefined” playlistId=”undefined” content=”dW5kZWZpbmVk”][/anyclip-media]A hunter’s Chesapeake retriever was attacked by a shark Wednesday after leaping from a boat to fetch a downed duck.
The female dog, named Pepper, died from injuries sustained in the unusual incident near Port Medway, Nova Scotia.
The dog’s owner, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Global News that Pepper was retrieving her second duck of the morning when the attack occurred.
“It happened so quickly and was so shocking that even though I was looking right at her when it happened, I cannot say for certain what type of shark it was,” the hunter said.
The man hauled Pepper aboard, but she died shortly after. The shark, possibly a juvenile white shark, measured about 8 feet.
The hunter said he shared details of the attack with the Global News as a caution to area water users.
“I was very close to shore, in about 20 feet of water, and my dog was only in the water for a matter of minutes,” he said. “To my knowledge, this is the first time a dog has been taken during a sea-ducking hunt, and it is certainly the first time I have witnessed the violence of such an attack so close to my boat.”
A surfing publication has shared footage showing a hydrofoil surfer being video-bombed by a leaping shark in Australia.
A surfing publication on Thursday shared footage showing a hydrofoil surfer being video-bombed by a leaping shark.
The footage shows Adam Bennetts artfully carving turns at Australia’s Wategos Beach when the shark leaped free of the surface and spun just beyond the lineup.
“Who do you think got the highest score? Bennetts asked via Instagram. “That el rollo from the shark was pretty sick.”
A dead Caribbean reef shark was found on a Cayman Islands beach this week with its body stuck inside a plastic sandal. “We must do better.”
A dead Caribbean reef shark was found on a Cayman Islands beach this week with its body stuck inside a plastic sandal.
The shark washed ashore at South Sound on Grand Cayman. The cause of death was suffocation, according to biologist Johanna Kohler of the Cayman Islands Department of Environment.
The sandal, or open-toed shoe, appears to have become a deadly hazard after washing out with the tide.
Baby reef shark trapped in sandal. Photo: Cayman Islands Department of Environment
The baby shark measured 30 inches and was likely born in July or August.
The sandal covered the shark’s gills, rendering it unable to swim, breathe properly, or eat. An examination of its stomach turned up only sand and a small worm.
The Cayman Islands Department of Environment’s Facebook post inspired several expressions of anger directed toward humans who don’t take ocean pollution seriously.
Reads one of the most popular comments: “This is just awful, utterly heartbreaking to think how much suffering that caused. We really must do better, please support local cleanups, get involved and take action.”
Reads the most popular comment: “We humans are not guardians but destroyers of this planet.”
A kayak angler on Sunday found himself in the middle of an epic battle between a relentless shark and frightened seal off New Zealand’s Eastern Cape.
A kayak angler on Sunday found himself in the middle of a frenetic battle between a relentless shark and frightened seal off New Zealand’s Eastern Cape.
Greg Potter was so close to the action, which he captured on video, that the shark rammed his 12-foot kayak twice as the seal attempted to use the vessel as cover.
“If it had managed to get me out of the kayak, that that could have been a pretty disastrous ending,” Potter told the New Zealand Herald. “I was dressed in full black. I can only imagine what the shark would have made of my legs thrashing around.”
Potter pedaled his kayak closer after spotting a disturbance in the distance. He soon discovered that he was witnessing a predation attempt by what he described as a young white shark.
“I’ve got a juvenile great white shark chasing a seal out here,” he says in the footage. “It’s unreal.”
The shark seemed unable to immobilize the seal during a chase that lasted more than a minute.
It was not clear if the seal ultimately escaped because Potter smartly pedaled away after the shark began to bump his his kayak.
“When the seal hid under the kayak, the shark came crashing up from underneath and smashed into the bottom of the kayak,” Potter said. “Then they did another few laps around the kayak, and then a second time, the shark again smashed the underside of the kayak.”
As for the shark species, we reached out to California-based white shark expert Chris Lowe and after viewing the footage he doubted it was a white shark.
“There are no black tips on the ventral side of the pectoral fins,” said Lowe, who runs the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach. “It’s kind of hard to see from the video, but from the frames I stopped I couldn’t see distinct black on ventral side of the pects and the body seems pretty thin.”
Regardless, it was a harrowing encounter for Potter, who had been fishing six miles beyond Waihau Bay.
A Hawaii angler on Friday survived a harrowing encounter with a large shark that attacked his kayak as he fished off Oahu. The frightening moment was caught on video.
A Hawaii angler on Friday survived a harrowing encounter with a large shark that attacked his kayak as he fished off Oahu.
Scott Haraguchi captured the dramatic incident with a Go Pro video camera that was still running after he had landed a fish. (The footage is posted below.)
Viewers can see the shark materialize off the bow a moment before it slams and bites the side of the kayak. Haraguchi kicks at the predator and immediately screams “Tiger shark!” as a warning to his nearby fishing companion.
The encounter occurred off Kualoa in Windward Oahu, not far from where a large tiger shark was spotted the next day.
Haraguchi, who was not injured, explained via YouTube that he heard a “whooshing” sound just before he saw the shark. “I looked up and saw a wide brown thing on the side of the kayak,” he recalled. “I thought it was a turtle at first.”
Tiger sharks, which can measure nearly 20 feet, commonly prey on green sea turtles.
But according to KITV 4, Haraguchi spotted an injured seal shortly after the shark attacked his kayak. He theorized that the shark mistook the kayak for the seal.
