Kara Pedersen was spearfishing off Oahu’s Waianae coast last week when her dive partner yelled, “Shark!”
Pedersen looked up, expecting to see a dangerous tiger shark. But it was a much larger whale shark that apparently did not see her.
“When I looked up there was a massive whale shark right behind him and headed straight towards me,” Pedersen, a veteran freediver, told For The Win Outdoors. “I didn’t have enough time to swim out of the way and it just plowed right into me, pushing me onto its back.
“It was simultaneously one of the coolest and scariest moments of my life. To feel the force of an animal so big was pretty surreal.” (See Pedersen’s video below and on Instagram.)
Whale shark sightings off Waianae are rare so it was a wonderful surprise for Pedersen and Steve Murphy to be able to swim alongside the plankton-eating gentle giant for several minutes.
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The footage, jokingly titled, “Shark Attack,” shows a portion of the encounter that occurred after Pedersen and Murphy had been tossed a GoPro from the dive boat.
Interestingly, the whale shark seemed to interact with both freedivers (no scuba gear), especially Pedersen, as Galapagos sharks lingered a bit farther away.
Pedersen’s boyfriend, Rob Ryan, was on the boat cleaning a fish that he had speared before the whale shark appeared, perhaps explaining the shark activity.
Of the initial collision, Pedersen said, “Luckily, they are harmless animals and I was able to push off and get out of the way of its tail.
“Surprisingly though, she kept swimming back towards me and made several close passes. I think she really liked my Waihana wetsuit and how I blended into the environment.”
Whale sharks are the planet’s largest fish and can measure nearly 40 feet and weigh 20,000 pounds. They feed by swimming through plankton blooms with their mouths open.
Pedersen said swimming with a whale shark had always been on her bucket list and added: “But this encounter exceeded our expectations.”