Great White sneaks up on Grayson Shepard in Gulf of Mexico Extended Version
13,264,428
Publicado 2015-05-17
The shark enters the camera's field of view at 3:48 and a moment later catches my eye. I instantly recognized it as great white and you can faintly hear me say "Oh my God". I estimate the fish was 35' or so below me. It spooked me in that it had approached from behind and had already passed me when I saw it. I watched until it swam out of sight then re-cocked my speargun which I usually unload when heading back to the boat as a safety precaution.
I glanced around looking for the shark and up at the boat to make sure the dive ladder was indeed down. I noticed a small lionfish had escaped from my bag and was swimming down and you can hear me say "oh no". The bag of lionfish was positively buoyant and it drifted into me dragging the stringer of mangroves with it. I moved it out of the way and kept scanning the water column below. My first two dives had been to 120' and I had pushed this dive at 93' to my limit of bottom time. I needed to do this safety stop to avoid the bends, so I stayed where I was while my computer counted down the required 3 minutes. I took another quick look at my boat and another at my computer which shows me at 15' below the surface.
Most sharks have a tendency to come back for another look and that's exactly what this one did. Fortunately, I was looking in the general direction when I faintly saw something that caught my eye. It was the shark about 40' away coming straight at me from below. I've had countless encounters with bulls, sandbars and a few tigers and hammerheads. Over the years, I've learned the best defense is to go on the offense and let them see that I'm not intimidated. Turning and running could trigger the predator/prey instinct, so I stood my ground aiming my speargun at its head. For a second I figured this was it and was prepared to fend it off with my gun like I have done countless times before with curious or aggressive sharks. Fortunately, for whatever reason, this one turned at about 15' away and gave me a full profile view. I say "Oh my God" again and then let out a loud sigh of relief when he turns again and heads back down. I watched until it disappeared again then decided to take my chances with decompression sickness rather than a third visit from the shark, so I skipped the remaining 2 minutes of wait time and headed to the surface and safety of the boat.
I estimate the shark was 9-10' long and at no time did it seem aggressive or anything other than curious. I'm a charter captain and I had a juvenile great white around 12' long circle my boat last year about 30 miles out around the same time the tagged great white shark named Katherine was being tracked in the Northern Gulf. I had heard other reports of random sightings and saw the news reports of the great white caught off the beach in Panama City so I knew great whites come into the Gulf. This was the first one I've ever seen while diving and this experience will make me reconsider diving in murky water with limited visibility. I'm glad we both went our separate ways fully intact and healthy, but I hope I never have to experience another encounter like that again.
Todos los comentarios (21)
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That moment where your brain puts together the facts, that you just saw a giant shark, you’re stuck underwater, and you’re holding a big bag full of dead fish.
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The fact that it completely disappears in the water after a couple of meters is so scary
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love this guy, he handled the situation perfectly, still did his safety stop, and hunting/collecting invasive lion fish? what a guy
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Always amazes me how calm divers are when they get to the surface in situations like this. THAT'S when I would be the most scared.
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My brown defensive ink would be deployed very quickly.
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I like how’s he’s screaming underwater but when he comes up he’s like, “ there’s a great white here.”
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“Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?”
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Guy literally holding onto Shark food on a stick wonders why Great White appears
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I have no problem with a shark swimming around me, it's when you cant see them or they disappear into the depths that terrifies me.
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blows my mind how effortlessly sharks disappear in the water
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Great White was like: "Relax bro. If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead."
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Shark: "Oh what's this weird thing, maybe i'll go take a closer look..." Shark: "Never mind, it's pointy."
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He was watching you a lot longer than you became aware of him mate, that's some scary shit right there.
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The irony lol. You are hunting fish while a fish is hunting you
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I hugely appreciate the honesty and unpretentiousness of this video's title. There's nothing stupid like "Brave diver barely escapes Great White"
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It's amazing how fast you can haul yourself and all that heavy scuba gear out of the water and onto a boat when you have a shark close by.. I reckon I've jumped clean out onto the deck like a salmon before 😂
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Shark: “relax man it’s just a prank.”
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At least you managed to gather 4/4 Lion Fish to bring back to the questgiver.
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Bro went on a sea lion kill streak.
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he could hear you hundreds of yards away and thought "lets check that out"
