Guys Fishing In Tiny Boat Battle Massive Mako Shark That Does Incredible Backflips

iStockphoto / Alessandro De Maddalena

A couple of fishermen in a tiny 13ft skiff fishing 12 miles offshore were treated to an amazing aerial display when a huge mako shark kept doing backflips in front of their boat after being hooked.

Mako sharks are known for their acrobatic displays. When they get hooked by fishermen, makos will engage in a series of flips and spins in order to ‘throw’ the hooks out of their mouths. But mako sharks have frequently been observed doing these backflips without being hooked as boaters have often seen them jumping around out of nowhere so it isn’t a behavior strictly tied to fishing.

In this clip, these guys were fishing 12 miles offshore in a tiny 13-foot skiff. The water is pure GLASS. It’s flat enough to go waterskiing or wakeboarding out there in those conditions, hence why they were able to get that far offshore in such a tiny boat. And given the weight of the tackle they can be seen using, it does seem as if they had plans of battling big fish:

I’m not 100% clear on where this occurred but the guy holding the rod while battling the backflipping mako shark is wearing a hoodie which says ‘Zoryana, Channel Islands, CA’ and California would make sense as mako sharks are a highly sought after species by shark fishermen in Southern California.

These guys made a core memory in that tiny boat but they are lucky the shark didn’t turn directions and come straight for them. It isn’t unheard of for mako sharks to backflip their way right into a boat… It happened here two years ago:

And it happened here as well two Novembers ago:

When these mako sharks are backflipping for their lives (or so they think) there’s no real awareness they might land on a boat. And when they do land on boats, they can destroy those boats especially if the boat in question is a 13ft skiff that’s 12 miles offshore. That’s not a situation I would want to find myself in… A sinking skiff in shark-infested waters.