A fishing boat off the coast near Santa Cruz, California became one big shark lure recently when a great white estimated at 15-feet long sunk its teeth into the hull.
Mark Davis told KSBW Channel 8 how he was fishing for squid bait off Capitola when suddenly the shark attacked his boat.
“I’ve had other sharks come up to the boat, smaller ones, but not a 15-footer. This thing was huge. I’ve never seen anything that large in the water before, and I’ve see a lot of fish,” he told the station.
RELATED: Make Shark Attacks Fishing Boat Like Wannabe Jaws
He described the shark as aggressive and said that it attacked from below like it was swimming at full speed and even knocked the boat into the air.
“He wasn’t fooling around, and I’m glad it didn’t knock me out because I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the water. He was aggressive and fired up,” Davis said.
RELATED: Would You Swim With These Sharks?
Once he pulled the boat onto a trailer, he could see where the shark had bitten the hull. The great white even left a chipped tooth behind as evidence. Based on the size of the tooth, marine biologists estimated the shark at 15 feet.
Typically, sharks are some of the last things people fishing or recreating in the ocean need to worry about. Cases of sharks attacking boats are rare, but they do happen. Just recently, anglers in Florida had a mako shark attack their boat as well.
Photo credit: KRON4.com
