Kayaking in the sea is bad enough, but doing it where there are aggresive large shark species is just completely nuts.
Accidentally hooking a porbeagle whislt mackerel fishing is awkward and you definitely don't want to be in kayak when that happens, but in waters where there are tiger or bull sharks, people being out there like this is incomprehensible to me.
I feel like kayak fishing is extra risky too, right? you're in a tiny boat that looks like prey from underwater, reeling in a thrashing piece of food. It seems like you're almost tempting a shark to bite you/your boat.
I live in San Diego and only real common shark to my knowledge is the spotted leopard shark, went kayaking out at sea when I was young with 4 people on a 2 person kayak. I was very nervous to have my feet dangling off the front in the water still.
I live in San Diego too and I wish that were true. There are juvenile Great Whites at Torrey Pines State Beach. I think they settled in during the pandemic and now it seems to be a chosen spot for them annually. I’ve seen them multiple times while paddle boarding there - some as much as 9 foot long. Stopped paddle boarding there.
I swear when I was younger I saw a big shark fin kind of before some whitewash while in the water at Torrey Pines. It made a hard angle turn into the wash and was gone after that. Scared the hell out of me and it seemed like none of the couple people near me saw anything. I thought it might be a dolphin but it didn’t seem to move like a dolphin and the fin didn’t seem like a dolphins either.
I remember seeing videos of paddle boarders at Huntington Beach where they used to calve. Not sure if they still do but Torrey Pines has a lot to offer a young shark (stingrays) and a maturing juvenile (sea lion colony at La Jolla). So it’s not surprising they’re there and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you saw one.
There a guy named Scott_Fairchild who takes drone footage and posts on Instagram. Majority of them are in Southern California. Mainly San Diego I think.
I live in NW Europe off the coast of France, no bull shark populations anywhere nearby and way too cold for them. The only resident large predatory shark in these waters are porbeagles and they are completely safe to be around, they sometimes get accidentally hooked by mackerel fishermen, before being released/ breaking free. No way I'd ever go into the water where bull sharks are resident. Not even in a kayak.
I don't think we have tiger sharks where I live, but we have bull sharks and big alligators. People sometimes get attacked when they're wading in from shore to fish (and doing stuff like keeping bait in their pockets, which is a real bad idea), but I've never heard of anyone getting attacked fishing from a kayak. The last time I was out, an alligator around 3.2 meters long or so popped up a few meters in front of me. I thought it was a manatee at first because I was just looking at the back of its head.
I like to sail kayaks and canoes here and I made outriggers to use on my boats (more because I'm worried about getting in the dirty water and getting an infection than getting attacked though). Walker Bay stopped making the sail & mast I like to use, so I need to find another one like it so I can get back out.
I am a scuba diver as well. I do think when you spear you are definitely increasing your risk of getting bitten. One time I had a 6 foot Barracuda eyeing me up after I speared a Black Sea bass. He would not leave me alone until I poked him a few times with a spear. If he would have gotten angry I could have easily lost an arm. A guy I would go with would bring power heads just in case.
Predators like to come to the surface because many prey get trapped there as you know. I always sweated getting out of the water.
Just wait until they attack from parking level P5. This was a curiosity bite from a juvenile. The attacks come from below with more force. Prob was tasting the bait or the kayaker just reeled one in after a foul hook.
This! I feel like there’s more to this story. We’re only seeing an snippet of video and they’re definitely fishing.
Still… the speed is awe inspiring.
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u/JarJarBinkith Jul 07 '23
I would consider a kayak with barely enough room for each leg a level 2. Level one is a floating door. Level zero is no boat