a visit by landlord's son

That was enough for me so I headed in.

Uh, I'll say!   

See shark, cruise back to giant fishing experiment (bleeding fish hanging from your board in the kelp), find that shark bit off biggest "bait"...  crap pants.  (NORMAL REACTION)!!!!!!   

Cool report.   

YIKES!
Too bad you lost the ling...but great story!
Glad you didn't have to confirm the ID of "whatever it was" the hard way!

I was diving out of a popular spot south of Carmel. Pat is right, I dive with a boogie board. I speared all the fish earlier. Usually I put the bleeding fish on top of my board if I see any seals around. But that day I didn't see any seals, so I let my guard down and just let the fish hang from my board in the water. I left the board inside a kelpbed about 30 yards from me. I was on the outside edge of the kelpbed (sandy bottom), swimming with thousands of anchovies in about 30 feet of water when I saw a big fish swimming right under me. The vis wasn't good enough to let me see very clearly but I can tell it's a big shark in grey color. So it could very well be a big soupfin or seven gill, but I cannot tell the difference (how do you tell the difference? I am all ears.). I decided to get out of the way and went inside the kelpbed. After a while, when I checked my board, the ling was chomped off already! Out of all the fish hanging, that thing only chose to chomp on the lingcod. The cut was extremely clean, looks like he only took one easy bite. That was enough for me so I headed in. The remaining lingcod was returned to the ocean after my photograph. I figured that even a ranger would want to see how clean the bite was, and I just have to take a picture.
So the fact is that the shark did go into a kelp bed to get to the lingcod. And whatever it is, it has extremely sharp teeth and a powerful bite. It looked to be about 6 ft long with a thick girth to me, although it's hard to judge the size when a fish is 30 ft below.

Hey Leony, where was it you had a run in with this shark? Would be great if you cared to share this info with us so we dont go for a while and run into it ourselves.

Was this some kind of secret spot or can you actually give us the name of the location?

Glad nothing bad happened no matter what kind of shark it was. If it took off half the Ling like that it could have just as well have taken part of an arm off i bet.

John,
I have no problem sharing the location. Just some people may not be too happy if I post it on a public board. Email me. [email protected]
Yeah I bet it can do some damage to a limb, but as long as I can see it coming, I am pretty confident I can defend myself. I cannot say that to his dad though. 
Leon

So the fact is that the shark did go into a kelp bed to get to the lingcod.

I like to operate under the premise that sharks don't go into kelp beds.

 

Please somebody back me up on this one.  I still have 4 abs to complete my card and need a little false sense of security.

Abman, sharks don't go into kelp beds....false sense of security restored! 


From what I seen at Ft Ross a submarine couldn't penetrate that canopy.  At Reef its a quarter mile thick and spans accross the entire cove.  I felt safe there.....no one pop my bubble 

Soupfin sharks look much like mako and GW sharks, the main indicator is that the anal fin and second dorsal fin are right above and below eachother, wheareas they're offset in other sharks.  They do have serrated slicing teeth:
and are known for hanging out in kelp:

Sevengill sharks get pretty big, >12', are grayish brown and have a rounded nose.  They also have slicing teeth, but on their lower jaw only (and they are wierd teeth for a shark, there are only about 5 teeth in the photo).  The upper jaw has pointy teeth to hold onto prey while the lower teeth slice up through it.  Sevengill are partial to eating bat rays in this manner.



That said, if I had to put money on it, I'm afraid I'd have to go with a white shark.  Albeit a small one.  I imagine the kelp is more of an impediment to one with a 7' wingspan than one with a 2' wingspan. 

I like to operate under the premise that sharks don't go into kelp beds.

 

 

Yeah, me too.