Great White sneaks up on Grayson Shepard in Gulf of Mexico Extended Version
13,276,168
Publicado 2015-05-17
The shark enters the camera's field of view at 3:48 and a moment later catches my eye. I instantly recognized it as great white and you can faintly hear me say "Oh my God". I estimate the fish was 35' or so below me. It spooked me in that it had approached from behind and had already passed me when I saw it. I watched until it swam out of sight then re-cocked my speargun which I usually unload when heading back to the boat as a safety precaution.
I glanced around looking for the shark and up at the boat to make sure the dive ladder was indeed down. I noticed a small lionfish had escaped from my bag and was swimming down and you can hear me say "oh no". The bag of lionfish was positively buoyant and it drifted into me dragging the stringer of mangroves with it. I moved it out of the way and kept scanning the water column below. My first two dives had been to 120' and I had pushed this dive at 93' to my limit of bottom time. I needed to do this safety stop to avoid the bends, so I stayed where I was while my computer counted down the required 3 minutes. I took another quick look at my boat and another at my computer which shows me at 15' below the surface.
Most sharks have a tendency to come back for another look and that's exactly what this one did. Fortunately, I was looking in the general direction when I faintly saw something that caught my eye. It was the shark about 40' away coming straight at me from below. I've had countless encounters with bulls, sandbars and a few tigers and hammerheads. Over the years, I've learned the best defense is to go on the offense and let them see that I'm not intimidated. Turning and running could trigger the predator/prey instinct, so I stood my ground aiming my speargun at its head. For a second I figured this was it and was prepared to fend it off with my gun like I have done countless times before with curious or aggressive sharks. Fortunately, for whatever reason, this one turned at about 15' away and gave me a full profile view. I say "Oh my God" again and then let out a loud sigh of relief when he turns again and heads back down. I watched until it disappeared again then decided to take my chances with decompression sickness rather than a third visit from the shark, so I skipped the remaining 2 minutes of wait time and headed to the surface and safety of the boat.
I estimate the shark was 9-10' long and at no time did it seem aggressive or anything other than curious. I'm a charter captain and I had a juvenile great white around 12' long circle my boat last year about 30 miles out around the same time the tagged great white shark named Katherine was being tracked in the Northern Gulf. I had heard other reports of random sightings and saw the news reports of the great white caught off the beach in Panama City so I knew great whites come into the Gulf. This was the first one I've ever seen while diving and this experience will make me reconsider diving in murky water with limited visibility. I'm glad we both went our separate ways fully intact and healthy, but I hope I never have to experience another encounter like that again.
Todos los comentarios (21)
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That moment where your brain puts together the facts, that you just saw a giant shark, you’re stuck underwater, and you’re holding a big bag full of dead fish.
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The fact that it completely disappears in the water after a couple of meters is so scary
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love this guy, he handled the situation perfectly, still did his safety stop, and hunting/collecting invasive lion fish? what a guy
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Always amazes me how calm divers are when they get to the surface in situations like this. THAT'S when I would be the most scared.
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My brown defensive ink would be deployed very quickly.
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I have no problem with a shark swimming around me, it's when you cant see them or they disappear into the depths that terrifies me.
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“Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?”
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I hugely appreciate the honesty and unpretentiousness of this video's title. There's nothing stupid like "Brave diver barely escapes Great White"
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I like how’s he’s screaming underwater but when he comes up he’s like, “ there’s a great white here.”
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He was watching you a lot longer than you became aware of him mate, that's some scary shit right there.
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It's amazing how fast you can haul yourself and all that heavy scuba gear out of the water and onto a boat when you have a shark close by.. I reckon I've jumped clean out onto the deck like a salmon before 😂
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I would like to clear up a lot of misconceptions I'm seeing in this comment section 1: He is killing the lionfish because they are an extremely destructive invasive species, even are considered the worst invasive fish. 2: Scuba tank wish spearfishing is fine where he is(Florida) with a permit, and it's to kill the lionfish, how else is he gunna catch them at that depth? 3: The other that he killed were killed in the most humane way, while it makes people squeamish, though the eyes is a fast and painless death, especially compared to what a lot of people do, (letting them suffocate is worse). I can assume he was going to use them for something else, I don't see people getting mad when people use fish-products or something.
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blows my mind how effortlessly sharks disappear in the water
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To anyone who dislikes the video or comments about how he's killing those lionfish for seemingly "no reason" do some research first please. Lion fish are an invasive species that aren't native and cause havoc to the ecosystem as they eat and destroy many fish and don't have any natural predators of their own apart from humans. Notice how they don't react when the diver is near them and killing them because they're not used to predators.
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Shark: "Oh what's this weird thing, maybe i'll go take a closer look..." Shark: "Never mind, it's pointy."
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The muttled sound of "Oh nooo" was priceless. Definitely made me laugh.
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I think the scariest moment isn't looking at the shark infront of you, thats simply natures beauty, it's once you're head is outa the water and you making your way back to the boat...that fear of the unknown
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Shark: “relax man it’s just a prank.”
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Guy literally holding onto Shark food on a stick wonders why Great White appears
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I love the bubble 🫧 sounds in the water. It’s relaxing to the brain! 😌
