A Shark Only Won Half the Battle
Article Submitted by Wyatt Joyce
We were excited to dive a new kelp forest that we’ve had our eyes on for a while. The sun was shining and the swell was finally down. After kayaking about a mile or so in our double kayak across the early morning glass, we arrived at the kelp forest. We jumped into the water and were immediately greeted by magnificent schools of calico bass, jack smelt and half moons. Right away, we knew we had stumbled upon a very productive reef.
Jackie kicked the dive off by spearing a chunky opaleye, her personal best. Hearing this, I decided to swim down near her. I dove down about 45ft, following the kelp stalk down as I descended to the sea floor. There was a school of calico bass and just as I had lined up a shot on the largest of the pack, an 8 foot long 7-gill shark brushed right by me less than a foot away. I’ve seen this species of shark before and they are usually quite docile, so I didn’t think much of it. However, its behavior and body language signaled much more aggression than I had experienced before. It sent me right back to the surface to catch my breath!
After regaining my breath on the surface, I decided to swim back down. To my surprise there he was again. And he was coming right at me! I stood my ground and when he got within arms reach I reached out and poked him with my spear. Big mistake. This only seemed to anger him. He aggressively whipped his head back around and charged once again. This time with fire in his black eyes and his mouth wide open barring his jagged teeth, he charged. I remained calm and gave him a really good poke, right in the gills. He didn’t like that and I chased him away until he disappeared into the murky water.
After telling Jackie what happened, we contemplated moving spots, but ultimately decided to give it a few more dives here. We had been wanting to dive this spot for too long to give up so quickly. We dove down together and saw no sign of the shark. After building my confidence back up, I decided to return my focus to the fish. I swam back down to the bottom, checked to make sure there were no sharks and then searched for fish. To my surprise, I saw an absolutely humongous calico bass, by far the biggest I had ever seen, cruising along the boulders. It didn’t see me, so I snuck up behind it and connected a perfect shot right through it’s head. I wrestled it to the surface, clipped it to the stringer on our kayak and we celebrated the catch. We were so stoked we didn’t let the shark scare us away as we were rewarded with this very special fish.
I was floating on the surface when Jackie emerged from the depths saying she just saw the shark, yet again. Then Jackie called out, ‘it’s right under us!’. And there he was. Those familiar black eyes stared me down once again and it barely clipped our swim fins as it swam past. For the next 10 minutes it circled us, getting closer and closer. We stood our ground and kept our eyes locked on him. If we looked away for a second, he would kick hard and charge us. Finally, I was able to chase him off and we decided it was time for us to go home.
We made it back to the kayak, secured our dive gear and were about to be on our way… Then, I looked back as I heard a big splash and there was the shark, full head out of the water, chomping at my fish that was hanging off the edge of the kayak. I shouted at him and smacked him as hard as I could on the head with my paddle. Its head was thrashing around, splashing us and shaking the kayak. I kept hitting him and he kept circling back and chomping at our fish. It seemed like he was never going to leave us alone. We were still attached to our anchor, which was right next to his wide open mouth, so we could not escape. Miraculously, after I smacked down as hard as I possibly could on his nose he finally let off. We then detached from our anchor and paddled off to safety.
I still cannot believe that happened to us. Good thing we were able to stay calm. Although, I am not sure we were ever in much danger. Even though he bit my 30 inch fish right in half, it is hard to imagine he would have wanted (or been able) to do the same to us. It was the fish he was after, not us. I am grateful for this humbling experience. The ocean continues to provide for us and remind us that we are truly not in control. It is through experiences like these that I am reminded of just how silly our daily life struggles can be. I can’t wait to get back out there!
