A kayak fisherman fought off a great white shark that chomped down on his boat 30 seconds after unintentionally prompting the attack.
A kayak fisherman off Northern California fought off a great white shark that chomped down on his boat moments after he bled out a fish he had just caught, evidently unintentionally inviting the shark attack by doing so.
Michael Thallheimer Jr. of Eureka was camping in Shelter Cove in Southern Humboldt County when he decided to go fishing by himself Monday morning around 6:15, according to the North Coast Journal and Lost Coast Outpost.
“I had caught two small ling cod and then caught a large one about 36 inches or so,” Thallheimer told North Coast Journal. “I put it on my fish clip. I cut through the gills and it pumps all the blood out. As soon as I did that, it wasn’t 30 seconds after, that [the shark] attacked.
“All of a sudden, it was attached to the side of my kayak.”
He described it as a 16- to 18-foot great white shark.
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“I saw a nose and an eyeball with no soul,” he told the Journal. “That animal doesn’t give a [darn] … [The shark bit] right in the middle of the kayak directly next to my knee and thigh, about 6 inches away.
“I slapped the thing as hard as I could on the end of its nose.”
It was enough to prompt the shark to let go. It then whipped its tail hard, hitting the kayak.
“It gave me a good thump, [but] it didn’t damage the kayak. I think he was pretty scared. He turned and split as fast as it could.”
Thallheimer immediately headed for shore, pedaling with his feet. Then he suddenly realized “the paddle was not there.” He told the Journal the shark had bitten through the rope that held the paddle to the kayak, so he circled around to retrieve his paddle and headed in.
Halfway back to the harbor, Thallheimer realized his kayak was filling with water; the Journal reported the shark had bitten a hole in the side of the kayak. He phoned 911 but as he was talking, a wave rolled the kayak, sending him into the water and his phone and keys to the bottom of the ocean.
He scrambled to get back into the kayak only to have it roll again and again.
“Every time I would pull it right side up, it would flip over,” he told the Journal.
“[Eventually] I got off and held on to the side of it…I was in the water maybe 15 minutes…It never left my mind the whole time that [the shark] might be going to come back. I had a freshly killed fish dangling around my feet because it was clipped to my kayak…I kept telling myself, ‘Be calm. Panic is not going to do any good.’”
A radio attached to his lifejacket alerted him that help was on the way.
“Fishermen responded, pulled him into their boat and dragged his kayak back to the marina,” Shelter Cove Fire spokesperson Cheryl Antony told Lost Coast Outpost. “He was hypothermic but suffered no injuries.
“He said he was so scared when he realized his boat was sinking and he didn’t know where the shark was. He was thankful to be alive because it could have gone really bad to be out there all by himself. Anything could have happened.”
Photos of rescue of kayak fisherman and rope that shark bit through courtesy of Shelter Cove Fire. Generic images of kayak fisherman and great white shark courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
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