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Topic: Great White Shark: Face to Face  (Read 4552 times)

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TheKeeneroo

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I'm sure there will be some opinions on this post, but Matt encouraged me to let everyone know.

Andrew37 and I were diving for Halibut at Del Montey Beach, Monterey this morning. I was in the water by 7:45a.
I knew the Halibut were being caught and I started in 15-20fow. Visibility was about 7ft at best but on my third drop I found what looked like a bat ray but had no tail.


Sand Dollar beds were everywhere, so I was staying to the inside of them for the first 15 drops or so. Andrew decided to swim North toward the pier and stayed shallow and I decided to swim deeper. I went out to what I hoped was beyond 30' depth (it was pretty far from shore). My first drop was great, visibility went to about 10 feet, and I saw the biggest anemone on a random rock


There was decent sand between structures, low laying kelp on the floor, and bait fish. A recipe for halibut territory. Dropped my gun to mark the spot, came back up to breath up. Now, I only press record on the GoPro if I think I'm going to pop a fish, or if I find one, mark it, and swim back down to my gun (it's an older model and loses battery quickly). For whatever reason, I didn't turn it on yet. I dive back down to 31', Im on the bottom for only about 30 seconds, scanning back and forth for a hali tail or eyes under the sand, and as my head scanned to my right, I see there is a 8-10' great white swimming parallel to me about 8 feet away. When I saw it, it took one swim toward me, got about 5 feet from my shoulder, (we literally had a stare down for what seemed longer than it was), I jolted to get my gun up and pointed at it, and when I did, it casually turned and slowly swam away. As it turned from me, I tried to turn on my gopro but was too nervous to successfully push the button. I know you're supposed to swim slow... but I didn't. I got to the surface, grabbed my boogie float by the nose, pulled it to my left hip, gun down the length of my right leg and swam as fast as I possibly could. I turned on the gopro to capture any sweet carnage that might be coming my way. Swimming fast was a Bad idea in hindsight but thankfully he didn't return. I got to shallower water, swam to Andrew and called him in. We opted out of further diving.

I'm expecting some gnarly dreams tonight!

SOOOOOOOO this leads me to my next question... who has a shark shield for sale???

p.s. this encounter was reported to the shark research committee of northern pacific - even though I doubt it will serve much purpose/help.
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." - William Arthur Ward

There's definitely a fish under THIS rock....

Eric, Pacific Grove
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Wldrnshntr

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 thank you for the report glad you made it out safe without incidence
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IslandYak

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Thanks for sharing your ordeal with the landlord and thank god you made it out safely.
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DG

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Glad you are okay.  Be careful buying older shark shields as the amount of charges are less than newer ones.  They are hard to wear while Halibut hunting but still nice to have. 
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NowhereMan

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Wow! Thanks for posting and glad you out-stared him...
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Welcome to NorCal  :smt006


and glad you are OK

When that Spearo got attacked last fall in Carmel I went out and bought a SS for my son the next day.

Probably time for me to get one too.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2018, 08:49:47 PM by Cabeza de Martillo »
Pronounced in Spanish  ka·be·za de mar·t·yo
Translates to Hammerhead in English for my Gringo amigos.
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P-Sherman

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 :smt103
Glad you’re safe.
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Mojo Jojo

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Glad you swam away A-Ok .... how hard was it to clean the stains out of the wetsuit seat!!!!!!


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trianglelaguna

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My wife and I fished that area friday and she had a 10-14' gws go right by her on the ocean side at 55 fow just outside where you guys were...a few days back i took pics of 300lb male sea lion under wharf two at the end trying to get spot on the pylons ,,,it had huge bite/bites around its head and face...was scratching on the posts to remove loose flaps...I just came in from 4 hrs pm fishing with two guys at mbk out 60 fow but mostly 45' and we had big boil right next us as we were having a safety meeting.....for sure there is a mid size gws in monterey right now learning to bite big stuff...fwiw
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dan916

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There are more white sharks in Monterey Bay now then there has been in the past and mostly of them are juveniles. There has been an increase of bait fish in the bay and that's drawing them. Heard a marine biologist report from somewhere not too far back. Getting face to face with the boss a divers worse nightmare! Glade you made it out in one piece!
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trianglelaguna

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so many whales and dolphins and bait balls too right now..tioga st was dbl parking from 11am- dark yesterday with folks linning the cliffs .....whales from moss to the wharf ..some lunge feeding in big pods off the hotel coming all the way out or tail slaps...in 50-70....dolphins and pelicans nailing it....it is on..marks on ff were crazy tonight..
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.”
― Kurt Vonnegut


Tote

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I have never seen a GWS while diving, but I think it would be ignorant of me to say one has never seen me.
Amazing the things that swim right next to you that you never get a chance to see.
Surfacing from a dive at Isla Mujeres I was told I almost ran into a 6' manta ray...never saw it.
Glad your encounter was nothing more than a visual. Still enough to scare the heck out of me.
<=>


BigJim

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 :smt010

Fugg......

Glad you are ok!!

Good thing I didn’t dive yesterday after work....

Oh wait.... :smt009

 :smt044

« Last Edit: August 02, 2018, 05:51:18 AM by BigJim »

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Fish Master1

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AH yes our local mola mola. :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt006
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Eddie

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Wow! Thanks for posting and glad you out-stared him...
Ha, me too, I may have shrugged...
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