Great White Encounter off Oceanside, California -- Archive

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Subject: Great White Encounter off Oceanside, California

Author:
Jim Morris

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Date Posted: 935293216PDT

Forward:

Gulf Area Sea Paddlers - GASP!
> >
> >Hello kayaking friends,
> >
> >I received a fascinating account of a kayaker's encounter with a
> >great white on August 15 near San Diego. I have asked for and received
> >permission from the author to pass it on to you folks. My thanks to
> >him for allowing me to forward this to you. I'm also forwarding this
> >to a shark enthusiasts/conservationists list which includes many shark
> >researchers for any answers they may have to Bruce's questions.
> >
> >These encounters are *extremely* rare and it's not likely Bruce will ever
> >see another. However, I don't think that the knowledge of that would be
> >much consolation in having just experienced such a close encounter.
> >
> >Sometimes it's easy for some folks that weren't present to make a lot of
> >grandiose statements about what they would/will do. Though it will be
> >hard to truly imagine... if you can, read this as if you were in Bruce's
> >paddling shoes and this was your encounter....
> >
> >
> >----- Begin Included Message -----
> >
> >From: Bruce Cherry
> >To: Jackie Fenton
> >Subject: White shark encounter
> >
> >Jackie:
> >
> >Here's the whole enchilada:
> >
> >I left Oceanside Harbor in North San Diego County at 8:30 AM on August
> >13. The skies were partially overcast, with scudding clouds blocking
> >out the sun intermittently. The water was relatively calm with swells
> >of about 4 feet. I was alone and paddled my light blue Necky Narpa
> >sit-in kayak approximately 2 miles on a compass heading of 260, pretty
> >much heading straight out to sea. I drifted and rigged up a salted
> >anchovy on a hook and let it drift toward the bottom. I attached my
> >fishfinder to the left side of the cockpit. It indicated a depth of 55
> >feet and a water temperature of 63 degrees. The bottom contour lacked
> >any structure and appeared to be flat and sandy. No fish appeared on
> >the screen I turned on my handheld GPS and laid it on my lap. My kayak
> >settled in parallel to the coast, bow to the south. The only other boat
> >in the area was an inflatable about 1/2 a mile away. When the sun would
> >peak out, the water was quite clear and I could see down perhaps 25
> >feet.
> >
> >I drifted with the current, which flowed along the coast in a northerly
> >direction. For some time, perhaps an hour, nothing happened and I was
> >lulled into daydreaming and catnapping. Suddenly my fishfinder
> >signalled an audible fish alarm, a beeping noise. The transducer was
> >facing toward the shoreline [east]. I sat up and looked over the
> >cockpit but saw nothing. It was sunny at the moment, so underwater
> >visibility was good. I then glanced to the west, and it took a second
> >or two to understand just what I was looking at. A shark, with the body
> >configuration of an orca---10-12 feet long but very, very fat around the
> >middle---was suspended a few feet beneath the surface, parallel to my
> >kayak, its nose pointed in the same direction as the bow of the kayak.
> >My initial reaction was one of disbelief. I had undergone surgery 8
> >days earlier and thought that the pain-killers I was taking might be
> >causing me to hallucinate. Reality quickly set in, and as I looked at
> >the huge head, unblinking eyes, black dorsal aspect and milky underside,
> >I knew exactly what it was.
> >
> >A great white.
> >
> >I've seen many blue sharks and a few mako sharks, but this thing was in
> >a class by itself. I kept homing in on the girth of its belly.
> >
> >At that point, my pulse rate shot up and my heart was pounding. I
> >didn't panic but I wanted desperately to be elsewhere. My first concern
> >was survival. I immediately cut my line, not knowing whether a 4-inch
> >anchovy down along the bottom would be causing a problem. I had already
> >made enough movements for the shark to realize that something was going
> >on in whatever was floating above it, so I froze. I didn't move a
> >muscle. The shark hovered there for perhaps 15 seconds, not appearing
> >to be swimming at all, then very stiffly, without bending much, it swam
> >away, heading west. It swam away perhaps 25 feet, still submerged 4 or
> >5 feet beneath the surface, and then slowly turned back toward me. It
> >didn't make a broad arc when it turned, but rather turned in a very
> >tight radius, although bending very little. It was now pointing
> >directly at me. The sky was overcast again so I couldn't see much. 20
> >feet from the kayak, it surfaced, its dorsal fin completely out of the
> >water and slightly bent at the top. It swam directly at the cockpit,
> >very, very slowly, covering the 20 feet in 4 or 5 seconds. It came
> >within 2 or 3 feet. I could see its head and both eyes clearly. At
> >this time, I considered taking my fish billy, a short club used to
> >subdue fish before taking them aboard, and clobbering the thing when it
> >got close enough. Still, I figured my only real strategy would be to
> >remain stationary and hope for the best. The shark came up, still right
> >up on the surface with its back breaking the surface and its dorsal fin
> >completely out of the water, and then stopped two feet away. Then it
> >simply sank out of sight. I couldn't see anything because it was
> >overcast again. When the shark submerged, I couldn't see any diving
> >motion---no porpoising or tail coming out of the water, nothing. It
> >just sank. I waited about 2 or 3 minutes, looked carefully around, and
> >then began a hasty retreat. I very quietly brought in the fishfinder
> >[it never beeped again] and was going to turn it off. When it's turned
> >off, it emits three high-pitched beeps, so I decided to leave it on,
> >worried that the noise might have an effect upon the shark, should it
> >still be in the area. I reached down to get my GPS, which also beeps
> >when it's turned off, and decided to leave it on and right where it was.
> >I then removed my paddle from the side clips and slowly turned toward
> >shore. I paddled very slowly for a couple hundred yards and then more
> >quickly and then at a rate that would qualify me for the Olympics. I
> >never saw the shark again.
> >
> >I started to head into the mouth of Oceanside Harbor, mentally drafting
> >the classified ad that I would place immediately upon landing. "For
> >sale, sea kayak. Cheap." But in reality I was so totally unnerved by
> >the experience that I knew it would be hard to go back out again. I
> >stopped and turned around and remained a few hundred yards off the mouth
> >of the harbor and fished for another 15 minutes. By then, my adrenaline
> >was back down, although I was hyper-energetic in general. Then I
> >paddled back to the ramp.
> >
> >Reconstructing the encounter, the shark must have approached me from the
> >east, setting off the fishfinder audible alarm. Then it passed under or
> >behind me and then came up parallel to my west side, at which time I saw
> >it. 10 seconds elapsed from the time I heard the alarm until the time I
> >actually saw the shark. I should also mention that at no time, even
> >when it surfaced and then again submerged, did the shark make a single
> >sound. The entire encounter was total silence. In fact, had the
> >fishfinder alarm not sounded, I would never have known the shark was
> >there.
> >
> >I've made many trips to the Alaskan wilderness. I've had close calls
> >with more grizzlies than I can count. I've gone to Central America to
> >write magazine articles and have had encounters with saltwater
> >crocodiles. But nothing compares to my encounter with this white shark.
> >It is a feeling of absolute helplessness and it left me unnerved. It
> >won't be the same again out there.
> >
> >I posted my encounter on the Coastal Kayaker's Fishing bulletin board
> >[West Coast Section] on August 13, under the name of Doc, about an hour
> >after I returned home. The response was considerable. Some people
> >expressed their own fears of white sharks while others were entirely
> >cavalier about it, saying things like, "Well, when you've got to go
> >you've got to go. No big deal." Others E-mailed me that they had no
> >intention of changing their habits when coastal kayaking. They would
> >still dangle their legs from over the side and trail a stringer of fish
> >amidships. If "Whitey wants you, he'll get you!" their comments
> >expressed.
> >
> >All I can say is if they have an encounter like mine, they'll probably
> >drop all the macho crap and realize that "whitey", although very, very
> >rare, is indeed out there and a kayaker had better use a little common
> >sense to avoid confrontation.
> >
> >The "what-if's" are really on my mind now. What if I had made a lot of
> >racket? Would the shark have behaved differently? Would it have fled
> >or would it have attacked? What if I had been dozing and never made a
> >move, not looking over the edge when the fishfinder beeped? Would my
> >total lack of motion have resulted in a different outcome? What if I
> >did have a stringer of fish attached to the side? Would the shark have
> >capsized me when it snatched the stringer? Would I then have been next,
> >as I thrashed to get back on top of the kayak? What if I were in a
> >sit-on kayak and my legs were dangling over the edge? What if the shark
> >were an adult, a real speciman of 18 feet or so? I hope that the shark
> >experts, the ones who can look upon this encounter through a lens of
> >objectivity, can answer some of my "What if's." I also hope they can
> >shed some light on what I experienced.
> >
> >To wrap this up, I have seen many photographs and videos of great white
> >sharks, and always have looked upon them with fascination. I was
> >surfing the Web yesterday, trying to find out as much as I could about
> >white shark/kayak encounters, and suddenly, there on the screen, was the
> >black and white image of a white shark's head, the coal black eyes and
> >the same "grin." I literally jumped in my seat. That sounds pathetic,
> >I know, but I'm rarely rattled by anything and this experience has had a
> >profound impact upon the way I view white sharks.
> >
> >I'll go back out again, probably in a week or so, and I'll head out from
> >Oceanside Harbor. But I'll only go out a few hundred yards, not out to
> >where the incident took place. There is no logic to that, since the
> >shark has undoubtedly moved on. [There are no pinnipeds in the area and
> >very few fish.] Further, the research that I've read over the past few
> >days clearly indicates that the danger is greater in closer to shore.
> >But I'm afraid of the water 2 miles due west of Oceanside harbor, not
> >the rocky breakwater at the harbor mouth where the seals hang out. Not
> >the least bit logical, I know. I'll also try to avoid going out alone.
> >A buddy or three would have been very welcome at the time. Being alone
> >made the experience pretty rough.
> >
> >I'd very much like to hear from the scientific community as well as from
> >other kayakers. I'm not an expert in the field by any means [my
> >doctorate is in literature and my only real expertise with marine
> >biology is what I learned from reading MOBY DICK as a freshman], so
> >you'll be speaking with a neophyte.
> >
> >My thanks to Jackie Fenton for her encouragement and support.
> >
> >Sincerely,
> >Bruce Cherry

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