[UPDATE 6 p.m.] Great White Shark Encountered Twice in Waters off Humboldt County
Eric Stockwell, a fishing guide known as Loleta Eric, shot the video above. He explained what happened, “I’ve been a kayak fishing guide since 1999. And, I’ve never seen a Great White Shark.” But he said, he knew that eventually he would. “I always have a camera ready,” he explained. “I usually have a camera on a tripod…”
Yesterday about noon near Cape Mendocino, his chance to capture the enormous predator on film came. “I was just out to get a few fish,” he told us. So, he didn’t have his camera mounted on the boat as usual. But he did have one with him. He says he had been fishing on his own but saw some folks he knew and joined up with about another five fishermen.
“I was about to leave and I was going to take my girls’ crabbing,” he noted. “I had just got a little bite.” He couldn’t see what it was at first and whatever had bitten his bait wasn’t fighting the line.
“It comes towards the boat,” he said. “I see something huge and tan. I think its a halibut…My god, it is coming right at me. I just pull it right in.”
But then he saw it clearly, “It’s a great white,” he exclaimed. “When the thing comes, you don’t think camera. You think survival!”
“[A]ll I could think was what I would do,” he explained. “It was just big like a Prius.”
Then, he said, the Great White moved sharply. “It breaks my line,” he said. “I still didn’t think to have the camera on.”
“Then, he said, “my buddy saw it.” When his friend shouted, that’s when he thought to turn on his camera. Below is the video.
He had to leave to take his family crabbing and some of the others left with him but, he said that the two who stayed later told him that they saw the shark again.
Another shark encounter was captured on video near the Humboldt Bay. We haven’t been able to speak to the photographer, Reed Gatton, yet but he confirmed via a Facebook comment that he took a video which we found on YouTube and embedded below.
It appears to show a seal being grabbed by a Great White near one of the Humboldt Bay Jetties.
Eric Stockwell who took the first video said after he got to shore he took his wife and daughter crabbing at King Salmon. He said he wasn’t worried about a shark while taking them out in “fifteen feet of water,” but later after finding out “Reed’s encounter was only about a half mile [to a] mile from us” that worried him a little.
Nicholas Simpson, an employee of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, commented on Stockwell’s post, “I’ll try to post a sign today or tomorrow just giving folks a heads up. It’s not going to stop anybody if the surf is good, but may keep the blind soloists informed.”
UPDATE 12:20 p.m.: Michael Godinez sent us the following video taken yesterday near Westport showing two sharks tearing up a carcass.
UPDATE 6 p.m.: Reed Gatton reached back out to us and told us what happened. He told us that he saw the shark about halfway out the North Jetty about 11 a.m. or 12 p.m. “We had been diving at the South Jetty but it wasn’t very clear,” he said.
He and his partner then went to the North Jetty. “I had swam away from the boat,” he said, “when I got the tingle in the back of my neck that says a predator is around.”
He paused wondering if he was imagining things. Then, he said, “I heard someone start yelling, ‘Shark.” The swim back was with my eyes right open,” he said laughing. “Once I jumped in the boat, I could see it hit a seal.”
Today, he said, his phone has been ringing off the hook with people wanting to talk about what happened.
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Well looks like no News Years swim for me.
We’re gonna need a bigger boat.
Nice! 😆
Bummer its injured!
Probably why its coming in closer?
Would be cool to hear from HSU marine bio folks, dawn goley is amazing resource!!
This is the time of year they’re the most active around here. Might want to hold off on surfacing for a little bit lol
This shark has been coming here in November for a long time. Saw it chasing some small porpoises on the ocean side of the south jetty about seven years ago. The porpoises were jumping about eight feet out of the water and I thought they were playing, until a few seconds later a great white shot completely out of the water. It came out horizontally like a torpedo and into the face of an oncoming wave. It was really, really big. Like twenty feet big. I think they have determined the GWs around here come from Guadalupe Island, and are known for their size. I told some surfers getting ready to get wet not fifty yards from where I saw it and they blew me off. I always wondered if they would have gone in, had they seen what I did. I have observed wildlife all my life and that topped the list for putting fear in me. You really would have no chance whatsoever if one came for you like that.
Sweet. Just in time for the movie Meg!
After sharktober it’s still fishy till Christmas
Thx, Kim – nice job, but I’ll clarify: I’ve been kayak fishing since 1999 and a kayak fishing guide since 2014. “Outdoor guide” – I do natural interpretive trips too.
Who’s ready to go on an adventure?…
🙂🙏
God, I am so sorry. I’m usually meticulous about quotes but…uh…apparently not. My most heartfelt apologies. I’m still blushing.
Hi Eric, that was a great video!
I saw one about 100 yards off the sewer at Shelter Cove when I was out ghosting along in a small sailboat. The damn fish was as long as my boat! There were some ab divers nearby and I yelled at them to get out of the water quick.
I surfed the cove and lost coast for 40 years and several years before that in Santa Cruz.
I had one dietary rule. I never ate shark hoping they would return the favor.
I’m still alive so maybe it worked…
👍😂🐳🐋🐟🐠🐡sheesh, no shark emoticons!
🦈
I like your theory.
Sharks are terrifying and fascinating at the same time.
Hey, here he is.
Looks like a dope on shark to me! LOL
What no skinny dippers!!!😜😜
I’ve hired Eric to go kayak fishing at Trinidad. He’s a great guy who knows how to catch fish and is very safety minded. We had a great time. I’m not sure he could protect you from a GWS though. 🙂 He also knows Eel River very well and is involved in its restoration. Glad you were safe Eric. NotaSeal
Live every week like its Shark Week!
Please leave them be. It’s horrible the number of Sharks that people kill every year. Please don’t even think of killing them.
My heart stopped when that beast swam by!
This is why standard safety equipment is so important, lifejacket, compass, flares and dynamite.
Just encountered a 18 foot GW. Off the Carolina coast while I was surfing . had to wait 5 mins on a set to come in while he circled me coming within 5 feet a couple of times longest t mins of my life. I was out about 150 yards. Im almost sure if I would have tried to escape quick paddling I would have been hamburger. He spared me. This haunts me now . You would have to been there. Trust me I would have not made it no one around to help no one!. He weighed about 1200 pounds Im guessing the mass was not even believable.
Daddy shark, Doo Doo do da Doo.
Baby shark, Doo Doo dA Doo.
I heard that the great whites migrate so its nice to see them here agine what ever they like is still here
SHORKS IS MEEN.