Coming in contact with sharks while kayaking can be a very unsettling experience. The fact of the matter is that sharks typically want nothing to do with you, that is of course unless you’ve been fishing and the shark knows that you’re dragging along delicious Mahi-Mahi with you.
Two kayakers off of Palm Beach in Florida received quite the scare when they were greeted by a 13-foot hammerhead shark while fishing, who then proceeded to follow them for miles and miles. The shark repeatedly circled them, and would charge the kayaks only to pull away at the last second. All spooky stuff indeed. The kayakers managed to get the harrowing event on film.
If you’ve never been kayaking or have forgotten what it is like, one thing you need to consider when watching this is that you’re only sitting several inches above the water. From those kayaker’s perspective that shark fin is sitting above their sternum, and that’s a f*cking scary position to be in. A shark is stalking you, it’s longer than your kayak, and you’re carrying along food that shark wants to eat. Not an ideal situation.
The 13-foot shark circled the kayaks at least 30 times offshore from the town of Palm Beach. It even bumped into one of the vessels more than once. Finally, the shark peeled off, leaving them with a fish tale to tell.
“It’s not really a huge thing to see sharks,” kayaker Mark Naumovitz, of Port St. Lucie, said Wednesday, recalling Friday’s encounter at sea. “But when you have a dorsal fin trailing you like its Jaws, it’s a different story.”
“It freaked me out a little,” said Naumovitz friend’s Brian Nelli, of Palm Beach Gardens.
The two men were fishing Friday, lugging their big catch of the day — a 16-pound Mahi. They dropped a camera underwater to film the shark during the close encounter.
“I was reminding myself there was a shark in the water and not to fall out,” Nelli said.
Reminding yourself not to fall out? Is that a problem you typically have?!? If that’s the sort of kayaker you are then I suggest just hanging up your paddle forever. But enough of this babbling, here’s the footage:
And because I love bragging about the fish I’ve caught, here’s the last hammerhead I reeled in. This one was caught out of Lighthouse Point in Boca Raton, not too far south of where this video was taken. Probably came in at around 6.5 to 7ft, we released it immediately since we were fishing a kingfish tournament at the time and this species wasn’t eligible for points.
For more Outdoors related content you should check out the links below, or our vault of ‘Outdoors’ content HERE.
RELATED:
Australian Mate Hops Right On The Fecken Backava Tigah Shark—Because Australians Are Insane
Get A Glimpse Inside The Mouth Of A Man Eater As This Deadly Tiger Shark Swallows A GoPro
Crusty Hippie From Sweden Sets Kayak Fishing World Record With 1,225lb Greenland Shark