Salmon Shark (old story)

[oldsalt]

I relate this story at the request of archaeofish. I started a new thread to conform with the no-hijacking rule. I remember the event clearly, but not the exact date. My sons just turned 39 and 41 this week and they were in their late teens (1988?). We chose to dive off Turn Island wall. We grabbed a mooring buoy with our sailboat on the north side of the island and took our small inflatable (10 ft) around to the wall. The boys were diving and I tended the dinghy. Shortly after they descended, they surfaced and launched themselves into the boat gear and all. "Dad, there was a shark down there!" Older, wiser, calmer, I said, "Relax, it was only a dogfish." Urgent voices insited, "No. This was not a dogfish, it looked like a white shark." Still unconvinced, my reassuring comments were interrupted by an expletive when a dark gray, thick-bodied shark with a blunt nose came right up to the boat. With what I interpreted as aggressive behavoir it made a pass, banking over and swimming down revealing some countershading on the ventral side. "What kind of shark was that?" My having taken some ichthyology classes, they expected me to know. "Let's go look it up." Back on the sailboat I kept a copy of "Pacific Fishes of Canada" by Hart. When we turned to the page with the salmon shark, all three of us shouted "That's him!" (I know, it may have been a her, we didn't check for claspers.) The description in Hart fit what we saw. It was big, but shorter than our inflatable (probably 5-7 ft). When telling the story in Friday Harbor the next day a commercial fisherman said, "Yeah. We have been catching them in our nets lately." I took that as confirmation of our sighting. I believe it was one of those rare experiences, similar to the blue whale sighting reported off Westport yesterday. People such as Jan Kocian and Dusty2 who spend a lot of time in and around the sea have more of these experiences than the rest of us.
-Curt

[archaeofish]

Great story Curt!

Janna: Is it too late for Curt to file a REEF report or has the statute of limitations run out on that one?

Thank you,

Ross

[Norris]

[Tom Nic]

Awesome!

[Jan K]

Great story and awesome encounter.
It sure looks like a Great White at first glance ... I don't think my heart would take it