A charter fishing boat roughly eight miles off the coast of Panama City Beach, Florida was attacked by a Great White Shark.
The captain first became aware of the shark when it bumped the boat, then started to lose his shit when the shark tried to eat the trolling motor off the boat.
No word yet if the great white was attempting to exact revenge for the shark fin soup epidemic, or if it was simply trolling for tail, but the captain did manage to capture video of the incident and pictures of the damage inflicted on the boat during this rare encounter with the ocean’s apex predator…
What the fuck? I thought this guy was supposed to be a salty fishing captain? Have you ever heard such a folksy captain in your life?
Another video from Madfish Charters:
The damage inflicted on the trolling motor (the very same trolling motor I used to have on my boat when I still lived in Florida):
The local Pensacola News Journal has more details on this truly bizarre story:
Capt. Scott Fitzgerald of Madfish Charters was fishing for amberjack on Monday morning about 8.5 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico when he felt a bump to his boat.
A great white shark was attacking the trolling motor on his 22-foot Sea Hunt.
“He knocked the boat two feet to the side, then grabbed the trolling motor and started shaking it in his mouth,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s when I ran up front and pulled it out of his mouth.”
“Every time I put (the motor) back into the water, he would go after it again,” Fitzgerald said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
When the shark attacked the motor a third time, Fitzgerald left the area.
According to Fitzgerald, a shark expert with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed the shark in the video is a great white.
Really? It took the shark attacking the boat THREE TIMES before you thought it might be a good idea to move along? I get that an encounter with a Great White might be exciting, but did you stop to think for a second that as a fishing captain your only job is to catch fish, and if there’s a Great White shark in the area chances are every fish in the vicinity has hauled ass out of there? No?
For more on this story you can head on over to the Pensacola News Journal or check out Madfish Fishing Charters on Facebook HERE.