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Great White spotted near Key West

5K views 43 replies 18 participants last post by  poopdeckpappy 
#1 ·
#6 ·
Went 'swimming with great whites' in a shark cage in South Africa. Before I went in the water I wondered why the cage was so battered looking. After seeing 4 m sharks (the really big ones were off on migration apparently) bash into the cage I understood the bent bars. They are incredible animals when you see them a foot or so away.
 
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#8 ·
That's because they're trying to get to the tasty treat inside the cage!
 
#7 ·
They're more common than you think. I just heard from the marina guys that the fisherman have been seeing one just outside Barnegat inlet for over a week now.

Me, I'm OK if I never see one up close. When they're around I'm no longer at the top of the food chain. :eek:
 
#11 ·
I would be a bit surprised if the weren't any White Sharks in the Florida Keys.
 
#12 ·
Back in '75 mom and I were on our way to Dauphin Island for some rafting in the waves and blue water at the beach (the water is muddy and calm at home on MS Gulf Coast). We'd occasionally get a bump on the leg, figured it was just us kids kicking around (lotta feet under the raft - big green military surplus raft), or maybe one of the adults trying to mess with us. First trip of the year in '75 we were on the bridge and a fellow had pulled in a baby shark. I still remember clear as anything. My mom remarked, "Where there are babies, there's a momma." It was a perfect little great white. No mistaking it. Anyway, we went on and had our fun. The reason I remember it so well is because later that same summer we saw "Jaws" and all those memories were suddenly amplified. I mean, blues and hammerheads, bulls we were familiar with from fishing rodeos, but a great white? Nah. Not there! Well, our rafting trips to Dauphin Island beach ended abruptly. People are always amazed at sightings. "They're not supposed to be there." Did anyone tell THEM that?
 
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#13 ·
Me, I'm OK if I never see one up close. When they're around I'm no longer at the top of the food chain.
You move from *top of food chain* to *top of menu*.
 
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#16 ·
The number of Great Whites off the coast of SA is incredible. There is one island that is home to thousands of seals and it attracts hundreds of GWs. Remarkably it is less than half a mile off a major beach and there has never been a shark attack. Maybe they don't like the taste and prefer seal.
 
#18 ·
That may be part of it. Bit I've always thought that the "humans naturally taste bad" notion is pretty much unproven, and mostly just wishful thinking. Although, humans do probably taste different, and leaner, from most marine mammals.

Taking one bite and backing off is actually part of the feeding behavior of Great Whites when attacking seal and sea lions. They bite, back off a bit, and let their prey bleed out. Many of the marine mammals they eat are as big or bigger than the average GW, so there is a very real possibility of the shark getting injured while its "dinner" is thrashing about. Humans, unlike most GW prey, tend to get out of the water and/or get help from other humans as soon as they are hit. This is probably what leads to our relatively high survival rate in such interactions.
 
#19 ·
Back in my Ute, digging clams for a living, I would often see large shark fins, at 4-5 am, WAY up inside Great South Bay.. in the canals. The reality is that sharks go wherever the H they want and can be found just about anywhere.
 
#20 ·
While the great white shark gets most of the publicity, in reality, the most dangerous shark is the bull shark. It's far more aggressive than the great white, travels up to 600 miles into freshwater find find food and is responsible for far more fatal attacks on people than the GW. Ironically, a fish species inflicts far more serious injuries on people than all the shark species combined - bluefish. You'll find all this information in a book entitled "Dangerous Marine Animals."

Gary :cool:
 
#22 ·
That Bull Sharks are more dangerous than Great White Sharks (or Tiger sharks for that matter) is debatable, and based primarily on the assumption that many attacks by Bulls are mistakenly attributed to Great Whites. However, Great Whites account for far more attributed unprovoked attacks.

In any case, I wouldn't mess with any of them. I once saw a Great White feeding on an Elephant Seal carcass just off of Año Nuevo. The shark was taking beach-ball sized chunks out of the seal. I was damned glad I was in a 40+ foot boat at the time.
 
#21 ·
Bluefish are devious as well. Years ago, we were out off Montauk, fishing for tuna. Large 20# blues were mixed in. My friend, forever hence dubbed "Captain Hook," reached down to grab the leader as a wily, malicious Blue spit the hook out, skewering a very large hook dead center all the way through my buddy's palm. We had nothing stout enough to cut the big hook off to run it all the way through, so he rode all the way back to the hospital from 20 miles off, hook-in-hand:laugher
 
#26 ·
Must be you don't have Bluefish down your way.Bluefish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are so numerous in certain years in the NE that you can almost walk on them. They are intense predators and watching large schools of them chase baitfish up out of the water can be quite impressive. Small ones, "snappers" are good to eat but they get oily and dry when they get past around 12." I think the statistic about injuries or "bites" probably comes more from careless fishermen trying to extract hooks than from attacks. I've never heard of an attack although I surely would not want to be in the water during a feeding frenzy. They are fun to catch and put up a pretty good fight.
 
#27 ·
My guess is that Gary was putting it in on his phone or his computer corrected his spelling the wrong way, people do step on blowfish or puffer fish, and then they get sick and can die pretty quickly.

I think the most dangerous fish is probably spoiled fish...
 
#29 ·
My guess is that Gary was putting it in on his phone or his computer corrected his spelling the wrong way, people do step on blowfish or puffer fish, and then they get sick and can die pretty quickly.
I think you ar thinking of Lion Fish. Those have poisonous tips on their fins. Puffer or Blow fish expand themselves to look bigger and some have spines that stick out. They are poisonous due to a gland in their body. A delicacy in Japan, if you get poisoned, they do not have enough time to get you to the hospital before your heart stops and you die
 
#30 · (Edited)
people do step on blowfish or puffer fish
I think you mean scorpion fish & stone fish. Lion fish are free swimmers,
you are not likely to step on one, but watch out for those long spiny fins.
A puffer can bite something fierce, but don't have spiny fins (except porcupine
fish, who are covered with them, but they are not poisonous). If you clean
them properly, they're delicious; I've been doing it for fifty years. No
bones - only a cartilaginous backbone.
 
#31 ·
Must be you don't have Bluefish down your way.
They're seasonal for us in Florida - like many other species, they show up in the
winter. In 'Flotsam and Jetsam' Robb White has some fun bluefish lore.
 
#33 ·
Not a typo - it's bluefish. The worst incident took place in South Florida many years ago when 50 people were bitten when a massive school of bluefish ripped through a school of migrating menhaden that just happened to be in the same waters as a popular beach where hundreds of people were swimming and playing in the surf. Bluefish are among the most predatory species in the world, and until about 1970, were considered trashfish in the list of edible species, at least other than New England and the UK.

I've personally witnessed them rip a hooked mako shark to shreds before the shark could be landed. That mako probably would have tipped the scales at nearly 800 pounds. When a school of marauding, chopper bluefish rips through a school of baitfish, they often drive them to the surface where a feeding frenzy ensues.

Until recent years it was not at all unusual to see 20-acre schools of bluefish churning the ocean's surface to a bloody foam as they slashed their razor sharp teeth through everything that moved - including some of their own. When that happens, the hapless predator quickly becomes part of the prey. And, size has no bearing under these circumstances. A school of marauding bluefish ripping into a school of migrating herring, menhaden, etc..., makes a feeding school of piranha look like a Sunday School Picnic.

Now, Slow But Steady, there are lots of marine biologists in this part of the world. And, every one of them that I know personally works in a small segment of the entire field, and most have little or no specific knowledge of areas outside their field of expertise. Bruce Halstead worked in the field of dangerous marine animals for four decades, he's highly respected by his peers, and written several books on this subject.

As for my credentials, until just a year ago, I researched, wrote and published outdoor articles pertaining to fisheries, wildlife, conservation and boating for two dozen publications, many of which were national and international. My career in this field began in 1975. I worked with and interviewed marine, fisheries and wildlife biologists from throughout the world, including many from the National Marine Fisheries Service and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. I chaired the Maryland Striped Bass Advisory Committee, which was instrumental in bringing about the historical striped bass moratorium in 1985. I had the good fortune to interview Bruce Halstead and write about his worldwide adventures in my weekly column in the Washington Post, a column I wrote for 16 years. OK, you're a marine biologist - what's your point?

Gary :cool:
 
#34 ·
Not a typo - it's bluefish. The worst incident took place in South Florida many years ago when 50 people were bitten when a massive school of bluefish ripped through a school of migrating menhaden that just happened to be in the same waters as a popular beach where hundreds of people were swimming and playing in the surf. Bluefish are among the most predatory species in the world, and until about 1970, were considered trashfish in the list of edible species, at least other than New England and the UK.

I've personally witnessed them rip a hooked mako shark to shreds before the shark could be landed. That mako probably would have tipped the scales at nearly 800 pounds. When a school of marauding, chopper bluefish rips through a school of baitfish, they often drive them to the surface where a feeding frenzy ensues.

Until recent years it was not at all unusual to see 20-acre schools of bluefish churning the ocean's surface to a bloody foam as they slashed their razor sharp teeth through everything that moved - including some of their own. When that happens, the hapless predator quickly becomes part of the prey. And, size has no bearing under these circumstances. A school of marauding bluefish ripping into a school of migrating herring, menhaden, etc..., makes a feeding school of piranha look like a Sunday School Picnic.

Now, Slow But Steady, there are lots of marine biologists in this part of the world. And, every one of them that I know personally works in a small segment of the entire field, and most have little or no specific knowledge of areas outside their field of expertise. Bruce Halstead worked in the field of dangerous marine animals for four decades, he's highly respected by his peers, and written several books on this subject.

As for my credentials, until just a year ago, I researched, wrote and published outdoor articles pertaining to fisheries, wildlife, conservation and boating for two dozen publications, many of which were national and international. My career in this field began in 1975. I worked with and interviewed marine, fisheries and wildlife biologists from throughout the world, including many from the National Marine Fisheries Service and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. I chaired the Maryland Striped Bass Advisory Committee, which was instrumental in bringing about the historical striped bass moratorium in 1985. I had the good fortune to interview Bruce Halstead and write about his worldwide adventures in my weekly column in the Washington Post, a column I wrote for 16 years. OK, you're a marine biologist - what's your point?

Gary :cool:
Cool beans, I was trying to find out on the internet why the bluefish would be considered dangerous, but though it was noted that they were a schooling predatory fish there were no mentions of folks getting hurt. I was seeing a bunch of stuff on the blowfish making people dead from eating it the wrong way, and just figured it was a typo, my bad.

I would love to see some video of those fish feeding in a school, I am going to have to search a little deeper and see what I come up with, if I find something good I will post it.

Pay no attention to the slowBS'er it is mostly harmless, though it produces high levels of greenhouse gasses and should probably be regulated by the EPA.
 
#36 ·
#37 ·
Great Whites are by far the most scariest but, Tigers, Bulls and OWT by far pose the most danger and are the most deadliest simply by the nature of their hunting tactics.

That being said, what a beautiful fish they be
 
#38 · (Edited)
I saw a program a few years ago on the bull shark. It was stated that the males had the highest measured testosterone level of any animal ever recorded, including bull elephants when in musth and 17 y/o male humans (;-D), thus explaining their extremely aggressive nature.
I love how it gets mentioned how sharks don't like human flavor. Who cares? The sample spoon taste they take is devastating anyway.
 
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