Kathrine, the Great White

[Bruce]

Pretty amazing.
Signed my 12 year old grand daughter up for scuba camp in July and after getting done the wife goes, hey honey have you heard about the Great White off our coast?

http://www.wfla.com/story/25528603/kath ... reat-white


"Katharine" the Great White Shark off Boynton Beach
Posted: May 15, 2014 3:25 PM EST
By Rachel Leigh, Content Manager - email


BOYNTON BEACH, FL (WFLX) - A great white shark named "Katharine" appears to enjoy swimming the waters along the east coast of Florida.

Just two days after her transmitter sent a "ping" off the coast of Stuart, according to OCEARCH it was off the coast of Boynton Beach at 12:18 p.m. Thursday.

The tracking of the shark's navigation is unprecedented after it was tagged Aug. 19, 2013 off Cape Cod.

The satellite tags were attached to the dorsal fins of the animals. Data can be collected when the sharks pass near the surface of the water.

Katharine weighs 2,300 pounds and has been swimming along the Treasure Coast of Florida since early this week before heading into South Florida.

Since the fish was tagged, it has traveled more than 3,735 miles.

Katharine is named for Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the song "America the Beautiful".


Cool link to track it.
http://www.ocearch.org/profile/katharine/

[Tommy]

The Ocearch site is neat indeed, Bruce. We had Mary Lee, a 16', 3500 lb. female hanging around our NC coast last year. She was tagged at Cape Cod in September of 2012 and she spent several months off our beaches. At one point she entered Ocracoke Inlet and traveled several miles into the Pamlico Sound near the village of Ocracoke (based on the satellite pings when the transmitter broke the surface). I just checked online and she is now in or east of the Gulf Stream, about 110 miles off Georgia.

[Carl]

I don't know if following these creatures is good or bad.


Yes, great to know where a Big one is....but how many are out there that we have no idea about. How many have we swam in close proximity with for years and years. Many SCUBA trips had a shark come in and leave paying us no mind or the Barracuda that just hovered behind watching from a distance...seemingly never moving but always at that same distance behind...watching.


So is it better to know or just swim and and enjoy as we have done for years and years. Just be extra vigilant not to go in water with open cuts, speared fish dangling at your side, avoid swimming at dusk, swimming with shiny objects and maybe avoid the areas the big guys seem to be enjoying just for the time being...no need to tempt fate.



I have a friend that hates going in the water...always afraid of what he can't see. Think if he could it would be worse.

[mike ohlstein]

Meanwhile, where's our Mako Man?

[Kevin]

I was out deep dropping on Saturday in that area off Marathon. We also picked up a couple dolphin...........I speared two of them. I wonder how close we were to that shark.

[my other east]

Carl, its funny that you bring that up about you're friend.
Our local nbc news channel (wptv5) out of west palm had a video about 2 weeks ago about a diver 9 miles out of vero beach doing some spearing when one of these untagged bad boys showed up. he poked it a couple of times with his sling, and like a horror flick, it came back more interested. he most have poked it about 3 or 4 times before the video ended.

When i was young my dad would always take us down to surgarloaf key, and we would fish the back country during the tarpon migration (april - may).
On one trip, there were people swimming and having fun in the one of the cuts, and i asked "why don't we ever do that?" His reply was "I've seen what swims thru these channels".
It left a mark on me that ajax couldn't scrub off.

[Tony Meola]

A good friend of mine does a lot of diving. He was on a night dive with another guy and after they got back on the boat, he said to his friend, hey why were you swimming so close to me. You kept on banging into me. The guy said what are you talking about, I was not even close to you.

I wonder how big of a shark that was.

[Carl]

What you don't know won't hurt you...then again sometimes it does.





Friend was commercial fishing Stripers years back before I started going with him. Always night fishing, the larger ones he used to grab in the water at the lower mouth and swing' em in, unhook and into the cooler. On a small rock pile just a stones throw off the beach he's bailing them in with the guys, all good size that were grabbed in the water...till the last one. He grabs and starts to swing in over the gunnel a huge sharks head emerges, grabs fish from his hand and disappears. From that night on, heavy line and all fish are swung in, no more hands in the water.


Stuff like this can scare me when I think about it...or the stories you guys told. But I enjoy the water too much to really stop and think what lurks just beyond. Offshore on a troll, I'll stop the boat and jump in when its HOT, at a beach I am going in. Chumming...not a chance. Spearfishing...no longer do I carry a fish in it. It's spear and to the boat.

I recall one Shark tournament we were out at our favorite wreck about 10 miles offshore...with a couple other boats. Whole ocean, bunch of wrecks they follow us...whatever. We are all chumming heavy with a good amount of sharks in the slick... a little 20 something foot boat pulls up in the middle of us all, puts up a Dive flag and they start putting on their SCUBA gear. We all start yelling how we are chumming and sharks are all around. They nod and jump in...came back up a good while later and left.

[Joseph Fikentscher]

Eric,

We used to have a house on Sugarloaf. Saw a 10 footer cruising up and down the canal. Was very careful swimming after that. Lots of sharks on the flats too.

Came face to face with a huge barracuda while snorkeling in the cut by the Sugarloaf Lodge.

I miss those days.

[RAWicklund]

I worked as a commercial diver for over 20 years.... saw a few big sharks... didn't see probably a 1000 more.

Always hated that 2 in the morning dive when the off duty crew had bloody decks on the bow of the barge fishing for what ever..... and they always had to come tell you right before you jumped in on the stern about the monster they just hooked...

" yeah, thanks guys".... I've found that if you close your eyes, they usually go away ;))

Ray


sidenote..... a 3lb Trigger fish has eaten more of my flesh then any shark ever thought of.

[scot]

VERY big sharks in close proximity to people is not a pleasant thought. They have always been there... are we better off knowing their where-abouts or staying happily ignorant of their presence.

a 3lb Trigger fish has eaten more of my flesh then any shark ever thought of.

Ray, I spent 6 years in the Gulf as a commercial diver as well (80-86).. and truer words were never spoken LOL. I feared the jelly fish schooling up worse than the sharks :-)

[Tony Meola]

Stuff like this can scare me when I think about it...or the stories you guys told. But I enjoy the water too much to really stop and think what lurks just beyond. Offshore on a troll, I'll stop the boat and jump in when its HOT, at a beach I am going in. Chumming...not a chance. Spearfishing...no longer do I carry a fish in it. It's spear and to the boat.

Carl

Not trying to keep you from jumping in, but back in the Mid 70's we used to run offshore with two 31's ours and an old friend who is no longer with us. We were about the smallest thing out there at the time and not many guys stayed overnight. Our friend had a 28 ft in diamater sea anchor he used to deploy off of his boat and then we would hang off his stern all night. One night we are laying up as usually I am on the bridge of our boat setting up the radar reflector and making sure we were well lit up. I see one of the guys on our friends boat stripping down naked. I yelled what the hell is he doing. My friend yells back going for a swim. I said at sunset in 1000 feet of water. He is crazy. They guy dives in swims around splashing for about 5 minutes and gets out of the water. Just as he gets into our friends boat, a shark swims right between the two boats. I have a feeling that shark heard the dinner bell going off.

[Pete Fallon]

Tony, Carl et al:
I had a mate years ago that would jump in while we were chumming out on Stellwagon Bank off Gloucester, I kept telling him it was not a smart thing to do. Finally I made him sign a release that I would not be responsible for him getting hurt or eaten. A week after he signed, one of the gill netters caught a 2400 pound great white a 1/4 of a mile from where we always anchored up. Needless to say he never jumped in to cool off again. God rest his sole he died of cancer 2 years ago.
Pete Fallon

[Bruce]

Back in the 80's I used to dive with Norine Rouse off Juno Beach on unbaited shark dives at 130'. Hammerheads, gray reef tip, bulls and others and we never had an issue. Even when I would try and swim closer, they would move away.

When Shirley and I did our Panama Canal cruise a side trip was diving/feeding fish. So I bought one of those water proof to 15' instamatics in hopes of taking some pics and I got these among others. The one smiling I nicked named Fred. Sorry for the clarity-pics of pics.

[Carl]

Tony- Your not keeping me from jumping in...I choose my words carefully when I said Offshore "trolling during the day" I will stop and jump in. IF chunking or chumming...I'm not too sure I'd be going over the side, especially for pleasure.
Dusk or dawn...not a great idea to go in and frolic around either...although the most beautiful time to swim and be in the water. I now rethink going in at the beach or out on the hook around that time, I stop kids from going in and even my wife I'll make that second and third request not to go in...such a shame. But from what I hear that's dinner time, the lighting plays games casting odd shadows making us look especially tasty to the toothy predators.


Then again...my dad was going sharking with some "friends" who never showed and decided to go himself. Somewhere off Belmar he stopped at a wreck around 8am, pissed as that was real late for him. Hooked a bait and immediately tossed over with a few feet of line on one of the 80's as boats motors were cooling down and started to get himself organized. Immediately the line started to come off the reel, f'n bluefish already he figured being so late, so he locked up the the drag and started to crank, the pole doubled over, line peeled from the reel. In short, big ass shark. He believed it was a Mako at 15' +...pretty much he said he saw the head coming out from under the boat on one side and still saw the tail on the other side...his boat is 12' 6" wide. He fought for a long while, maneuvering pole from pole holder to pole holder on one side of the boat to the other had him up a few times, but boat was still not setup yet with gaff or harpoon ready, he radioed requested help from other boats...but after awhile he was shot and just brought the drag up, line popped and he went home.

No chum, bait had only hit the water, it was a bright, sunny morning...the shark was there and ready to eat. It was a time I would not have thought twice about jumping in...whatever, it could scare me if I let it.

[Dug]

I hate to say it, I don't swim offshore. No way. I have seen way too many fish just come out of nowhere. I just don't like it. And even inshore, off Misquamicut beach I had a life guard say he won't swim unless he has too. Why? He's seen way too much stuff right off the beach without being specific. I guess if you sit in a high up chair without a book staring at the ocean all day, you see things that most others don't see.

Some people have a lot less of a problem getting in the water than me. I would rather be on it than in it, even in fresh water.

Just me I guess. As for knowing where the sharks are? They could be a lot of places. I understand the research side of this knowledge and think learning what these fish are capable of and do is amazing. They really are incredible creatures.

Just my $0.02

Dug

[Rocket]

My dad was killed by a shark in Mexico a long time ago, sunset swim was his last. It does happen, not just a myth...

[Dug]

Rocket... wow.

[Carl]

Rocket,
Something I would prefer not to have heard.
Very sorry to hear that.

[Tony Meola]

Rocket

Sorry to hear that. Loosing a parent is not easy, that had to be really tough.

[SteveM]

Rocket I am very sorry to hear that, tragic.

Bruce, nice photos! Norine Rouse, that's a Palm Beach historical figure. I was certified at 11 years old by Rusty Stuke, she only allowed it because my Dad was along. I think I'm better off in the water with a mask diving than on my surfboard. I think we look like big sea turtles on those surfboards to these sharks. I've had a number of surfing friends get hands, and legs bitten, all survived. Now I understand much better when as a kid I would only see the old guys out surfing when it was REALLY perfect and worth it…plus my bad back adds to that same logic.

We see sharks frequently in the Bahamas. No issues, they typically are curious. I do far less spearfishing than I used to. Diving for conch and lobster don't seem to attract sharks, so I do more of that than spearing Hogsnappers these days. Most people getting bit in the Bahamas are almost always spearfishing. I just started Stone Crab trapping too…failed miserably on my first crack. I need some inside intelligence on that.

[RAWicklund]

C'mon in.....the waters fine


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-m3N_BnVdOI