-- Last Updated: Mar-15-08 8:16 PM EST --
and when I say a shark I mean over 10 foot bull sharks the ones that attack whites
Fighting Off Big Sharks
Best way to answer this is with an excerpt from my someday-to-be-published autobiography. This happened on the Moloka’i Coast of Hawai’i back in the late 80’s. Because of overfishing, tiger sharks now come even closer to Hawai’i’s shores.
Twelve doctors from Maui Memorial Hospital were witness to this event.
* * * * *
A mile after rounding the point, the seas calmed, so I pulled the docs together well offshore Wailau, Moloka’i’s deepest valley. We were in “Victory At Sea” pelagic blue water, fairly calm and unthreatening, but late afternoon – and straight downstream of that vicious current pouring around the point.
I dug into the cooler with a plastic bowl, scooped out some raw fish salad, and offered the bowl to the next kayak without looking while I was closing the cooler lid.
Only problem was there wasn’t another kayak, but a huge dark shadow gliding just under water. Directly under my outstretched arm was a flat snout almost two feet wide. The flat nose bounced against the inflatable tube in rhythm with the sea, a mere eleven inches of air from my torso. Since the nose was hitting the tube exactly head on, I noticed the snout curved only slightly on both sides. And there were little yellow eyes two feet apart.
Tiger Shark! Not big, huge. The dorsal was two or three meters behind the head – I didn’t stop to measure because I’m holding that bowl of raw fish half a meter directly over the huge head.
A thousand thoughts rattled my brain bucket in that microsecond of realization. They all said I could not feed my new friend, or very bad things might happen.
In wildlife rehabbing, eye contact is my first step to solution, so I looked the tiger right in its surprisingly small eye. It has that puppy-dog “feed me” look, no intimidating vibes at all. I instinctively knew my solution…I hoped.
Firm but not excited or antagonistic, confident without expressing concern I sternly said, “No, you can’t have any!”
The giant flinched, gave me a “Well, OK” look and backed off. I didn’t waste any time putting the Poisson cru back in the cooler.
“I guess there’s no lunch on the run today folks. Let’s eat at the Kainoa’s”
Before we paddled on to Ha’upu, two docs cruised over to the giant, still drifting on the surface, and placed their kayak along its length.
“Hey Turkeys, that’s still an inflatable and that’s still a tiger shark!” (Even docs can be a bit brain-dead.)
The reply came back like true Hawaiian watermen
“Just checking on the length.”
My sea-going kayaks were 16’10”. In swimming mode, the shark was another meter and a half, That’s just over 20 feet, and nobody bothered with stretching the shark straight out. Twenty feet is a tiger shark’s listed limit, so it was as big as it gets.
All that really counted was this guy had big teeth, we were in its element, and our boats were far smaller than the shark’s huge body.
Throughout, the encounter was calm, curious and non-threatening. Although our entire group of 15 was in awe, none of us felt intimidated or threatened. I wasn’t shaking, simply amazed at such a close encounter with such a fearsome beast.
I was truly amazing at how rapidly the “Tiger” appeared after I exposed the raw fish – only 15-30 seconds after opening the cooler. I wondered if this big guy shadowed all my trips, surfacing only when I broke out French fish salad.
* * * * *
Tigers seem more intelligent that what I’ve heard about bulls, and at least in Hawai’i, they are often solitary. For these reasons, Bulls may be more dangerous.
John “Caveman” Gray
Natural History By Sea Kayak Since 1983
Fighting Off Big Sharks
Best way to answer this is with an excerpt from my someday-to-be-published autobiography. This happened on the Moloka’i Coast of Hawai’i back in the late 80’s. Because of overfishing, tiger sharks now come even closer to Hawai’i’s shores.
Twelve doctors from Maui Memorial Hospital were witness to this event.
* * * * *
A mile after rounding the point, the seas calmed, so I pulled the docs together well offshore Wailau, Moloka’i’s deepest valley. We were in “Victory At Sea” pelagic blue water, fairly calm and unthreatening, but late afternoon – and straight downstream of that vicious current pouring around the point.
I dug into the cooler with a plastic bowl, scooped out some raw fish salad, and offered the bowl to the next kayak without looking while I was closing the cooler lid.
Only problem was there wasn’t another kayak, but a huge dark shadow gliding just under water. Directly under my outstretched arm was a flat snout almost two feet wide. The flat nose bounced against the inflatable tube in rhythm with the sea, a mere eleven inches of air from my torso. Since the nose was hitting the tube exactly head on, I noticed the snout curved only slightly on both sides. And there were little yellow eyes two feet apart.
Tiger Shark! Not big, huge. The dorsal was two or three meters behind the head – I didn’t stop to measure because I’m holding that bowl of raw fish half a meter directly over the huge head.
A thousand thoughts rattled my brain bucket in that microsecond of realization. They all said I could not feed my new friend, or very bad things might happen.
In wildlife rehabbing, eye contact is my first step to solution, so I looked the tiger right in its surprisingly small eye. It has that puppy-dog “feed me” look, no intimidating vibes at all. I instinctively knew my solution…I hoped.
Firm but not excited or antagonistic, confident without expressing concern I sternly said, “No, you can’t have any!”
The giant flinched, gave me a “Well, OK” look and backed off. I didn’t waste any time putting the Poisson cru back in the cooler.
“I guess there’s no lunch on the run today folks. Let’s eat at the Kainoa’s”
Before we paddled on to Ha’upu, two docs cruised over to the giant, still drifting on the surface, and placed their kayak along its length.
“Hey Turkeys, that’s still an inflatable and that’s still a tiger shark!” (Even docs can be a bit brain-dead.)
The reply came back like true Hawaiian watermen
“Just checking on the length.”
My sea-going kayaks were 16’10”. In swimming mode, the shark was another meter and a half, That’s just over 20 feet, and nobody bothered with stretching the shark straight out. Twenty feet is a tiger shark’s listed limit, so it was as big as it gets.
All that really counted was this guy had big teeth, we were in its element, and our boats were far smaller than the shark’s huge body.
Throughout, the encounter was calm, curious and non-threatening. Although our entire group of 15 was in awe, none of us felt intimidated or threatened. I wasn’t shaking, simply amazed at such a close encounter with such a fearsome beast.
I was truly amazing at how rapidly the “Tiger” appeared after I exposed the raw fish – only 15-30 seconds after opening the cooler. I wondered if this big guy shadowed all my trips, surfacing only when I broke out French fish salad.
* * * * *
Tigers seem more intelligent that what I’ve heard about bulls, and at least in Hawai’i, they are often solitary. For these reasons, Bulls may be more dangerous.
John “Caveman” Gray
Natural History By Sea Kayak Since 1983