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Getting a bit close.....great white

webbfunk

By webbfunk
in Boating

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Terry H Newbie

Terry H

Posted
Posted

Hulk: Please note, I'm not going to try and pretend I'm an expert on shark behaviour, and provide some gospel on what to do and what not to do. Listed below are a couple of things that I believe should have been done/not done in that situation, and why I believe that.

There's a number of things I believe they did wrong out there in the kayaks. One of the guys out there reckons they did all the right things, I disagree, but that's just me.

Firstly, Steve (Karnage from AKFF) aka the guy that "fell out" didn't fall out of his kayak. The shark gave it a good nudge to see if he was edible.

The shark apparently surfaced next to him, and then went behind him. At this point in time, the kayaker apparently started pedalling away from it as fast as possible. I believe this was a mistake. The shark quickly turned around and gave him a nudge/bump and flipped the kayak over.

Why do I believe that to be wrong? Well:

A Sharks prey moves away from a shark as fast as it can. If you have a large shark that's interested in seeing if you're a meal or not, you want to teach it pretty darn quickly that you're not its next feast. As such, I probably wouldn't be gunning it, instead I'd probably grab a paddle and push the shark away. I don't think this great white was in an agressive mood. If it was, one of those guys wouldn't have made it back in one piece. Or at least, they'd be a kayak less. Without searching the internet for a host of instances to support or discourage this practice, one kayaking incident comes to mind. Last year I believe it was, some woman in a kayak had a very similar experience to Steve. A great white circled the kayak, bumped her into the water. Unfortunately for this woman, I THINK (don't quote me on the biting part) she received a fairly (relatively) minor bite. She managed to poke the shark with a paddle and it buggered off.

2ndly: Ok, these guys were fishing for kingies, and by all reports it was going absolutely bonkers. They were kepeing some and bleeding them as they caught them. Ok, this is obviously a practice which is going to attract a shark, but what are you going to do? It's something that kinda needs to be done sometimes.

Well, one of the kayakers advised the rest to discard their keepers. Granted, no mention was ever made as to how they were storing their keepers, but if its anything like what we do, they were most likely stashed in the hull of the kayak. What's the significance of how they were stored? Well, I would take a stab and say that not much blood is getting out into the water if the fish is in the hull. Hopefully the shark doesn't even know about those fish, but who knows.

So here, I believe that: If the shark doesn't know about your fish. Why throw them away? I belivee at least, that in doing so you're a) feeding the shark and B) keeping it interested in you. After all, it gives you a nudge, has a swim around and oo! a free feed. I think this is a great tactic... If you have a spare whale stashed in your hull so that you literally can feed this thing completely while you make a quick escape :lol: Sadly I can't fit a whale in my hull. :unsure:

Now obviously, if you have a bait bag or tube sitting in the water, like some of us do offshore (bait tube) in a situation like this, I would advise the immediate dumping of bait. Because the shark would be more than aware of the bait hanging off/next to your kayak and would come to investigate.

Similarly if you have a fish sitting in the back of your kayak with some water washing over it every now and then and having its juices slowly trickle into the kayak. In a calm bay this isn't really an issue, but out in the ocean you usually have a bit of a swell and the rear cargo spot can get wet quite easily. There, you'd have smelly fish stuff running into the ocean, attracting a shark to you. So here I reckon you get rid of it.

But if its stored in a container, like your hull (I mean, you shouldn't have water coming in and out of your hull!) or an esky, then I wouldn't ditch them.

The ultimate aim is to prove to the shark that you're not edible. Stay calm, be smart.

These are my beliefs only, I'm sure many will disagree, maybe even some shark experts.

Edit: What I would be doing is:

1. Stop fishing!Keep an eye ont he shark

2. Take a paddle out (ok, paddlers already probably ahve theirs in the hand or lap, but us hobie users generally just keep it there for aesthetic purposes)

3. Lock and Strap everything down. Prepare to be nudged and thrown out of the kayak. I generally have .. everything sitting out in the open, if I got rolled I'd be up a certain creek really.

4. Assess what may have attracted him. Maybe its just the fish around you. Maybe (s)he's just curious. Maybe you have a 30kg tuna hanging off the back of your kayak. Discard anything that may be attracting the shark.

5. Don't make any quick get away moves. You can't paddle or pedal quicker than a shark. Maybe if you jump on the shark, hack its tail off and stab it in both eyes you can then safely get back onto the kayak and move away as fast as possible while yelling "So long, sucker! Hahaha"

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