Thread: Kayaker and great white shark

Originally Posted by MB

Last sighting at the Frenchman.

Where's the Frenchman?

Originally Posted by Quackers

Where's the Frenchman?

Pretty much at the harbour entrance.

Biggest white I've seen was about 20feet from the back of the dorsal to the tip of the tail fin, the dorsal fin was between 750-1000mm out of the water. This was on a Navy boat doing navigation training between the Mokes and Hen and Chicks, heading in to the coast. We were all standing on the deck (basically the whole crew apart from officer on watch and helmsman) looking at this thing sunning itself, no one thought to take a picture. Damn...

As far as the kayak, octopus theory - squirt and run away haha.

One point got me part way through...What is scarier than seeing a very large shark following your kayak? Kowing there was a very large shark following your kayak and now NOT being able to see it........!!!! You know it is still there....

Originally Posted by No.3

Biggest white I've seen was about 20feet from the back of the dorsal to the tip of the tail fin, the dorsal fin was between 750-1000mm out of the water. This was on a Navy boat doing navigation training between the Mokes and Hen and Chicks, heading in to the coast. We were all standing on the deck (basically the whole crew apart from officer on watch and helmsman) looking at this thing sunning itself, no one thought to take a picture. Damn...

That a near 40 foot shark, 12 metres! Could it have been a whale shark? Otherwise you saw a megalodon!

Change of undies needed for sure after that encounter.

Originally Posted by MB

Pretty much at the harbour entrance.

F me .. we were foshing around there the other week a bit further along through. Got some.good.snaps

Originally Posted by MB

That a near 40 foot shark, 12 metres! Could it have been a whale shark? Otherwise you saw a megalodon!

I know. We were on one of the old IPC's, and had a few things on the deck to compare sizing to. But - just the size of the dorsal fin (ahem, sail) is more of an indication of the overall size of the thing. Impressive.

Whale sharks lack the triangular dorsal with the straight leading edge and vertical rear edge. In fact most sharks don't have such a square fin, and at that size...

If you have a look at the size of the fish in the video - and it's a very big fish - the size of the dorsal is indicative of the size of the fish. I've seen a few that size on the surface, and they are impressive. No, they are incredible animals, absolutely gorgeous fish.

But that thing we saw sunning itself that time, no one said a word the entire time we were looking at it. The entire crew apart from the two who were on the bridge, and no one said a thing. We just all stood there gawking at it silently.

Originally Posted by timattalon

One point got me part way through...What is scarier than seeing a very large shark following your kayak? Kowing there was a very large shark following your kayak and now NOT being able to see it........!!!! You know it is still there....

I run off the theory that there is always something there in the ocean. Had a fur seal sneak up on me once, bloody near dumped a sewer load into me suit. I swear the little shite was laughing at me too! Had a mate get the fright of his life when an Orca wandered in to have a look, he turned around to a bloody bus a few meters away wondering what he was up to. The way he tells the story, all was good until the Orca tried to introduce itself and it smiled at him! It's one story that gets better every time he tells it. The eyeball was the size of a truck wheel!

well worth a watch
Interesting body language from shark when faced head on, loves to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQykjoTvlUA

When you see them like that they are as casual as, it's the pec fins down, back arched, tail shoved side to side and eyes shuttered that gives me the hebejebes. I saw some footage of bull sharks a few years back, those give me the turds more than the whites. Glad we don't have them in our waters TBH. Saw a massive hammerhead one day out on the water, big brown beast of a thing. Much bigger than they are supposed to get as well. Seen a few mako's in the 14-16 feet range, that's getting up there for them too. A few small blues, never really seen a big one of them and never seen a tiger personally. That big white girl from up north makes them all look like baby shark haha.

Originally Posted by timattalon

One point got me part way through...What is scarier than seeing a very large shark following your kayak? Kowing there was a very large shark following your kayak and now NOT being able to see it........!!!! You know it is still there....

When we used to dive a bit at Ruapuke I'd always make a few nervous remarks about GWs as they were always on my mind and fella I dived with who had a lot more experience than I diving around Foveaux reckoned don't worry if you see a GW it's just having a nosey and not trying to get you...the ones you don't see are the ones you need to worry about

Hopefully some Orca with a taste for liver turn up.
Funny how "legend yak fishers" turn in to blubning little babies when things like that happen.

Great Whites been in Kawhia harbour this summer as well

Originally Posted by 7mm tragic

Great Whites been in Kawhia harbour this summer as well

They everywhere, no joke. I was swimming off Papamoa Beach a while back, saw two Bronze Whalers go past a few meters back and then another a few minutes later. About 10mins after that a lady started doing the jesus impersonation and started screaming and waving on the beach as soon as her feet weren't wet. I walked in from the water casually and asked what her issue was (knowing full well she'd seen a shark and was doing the white girl deal with it calmly thing). Got the full rendition with arm waving, the bouncing up and down, the wide eyes, the high pitch fast talking the full works.

Waited for her to finish and then told her I've been seeing them swim past for the last 1/2 hour, they're only bronzies and they are there for the fish no danger to us. The look I got was priceless, just did not compute at all.