Kirk Fay The Fisherman’s Long Island edition offshore columnist had a day he won’t soon forget while prowling the waters offshore of Long Island’s South Shore with his wife Gina on Wednesday, September 16th. Among the highlights of that day was an encounter with a huge great white shark that they came upon feeding on whale carcass. Here is Kirk’s account of the days events in his own words.
Last Wednesday, Gina and I ran our boat the “Enterprise” roughly 12 miles southeast of the Coimbra. On the way we found a bunch of floating debris from which we had no problem pulling a few mahimahi from underneath. After putting a few mahi in the box we decided to deploy our eight rod spread and look for some tuna. After several hours of not a single knock down we decided to pack it in for the day.
With the ocean looking like glass, I spotted something very odd off in the distance. With all of our trolling gear and outriggers secured I decided to get up on plane and investigate. There was only one other boat in the area, and it happened to be a commercial dragger. It turns out they had the same idea as us. They also headed over to investigate. As we got closer the air began to choke us. It was the worst smell I have ever come across. At this point it was pretty obvious what we had found. It was a rotting dead whale.
As we pulled up on one side of the whale the dragger settled in on the other side. Despite the slick calm and clean water we saw nothing. However, the guys on the dragger were screaming at us that there was a huge great white on their side. I still had a bunch of peanut bunker and a snapper in the livewell so I started to throw a few in to see what would happen. To my surprise a bunch of mahi appeared out of nowhere. Along with the mahi were what looked to be a few brown sharks. Most of the mahi were on the small size except for one. It was impossible to get a bait down to this big cow. However as I looked in the livewell I spotted a hand sized snapper and rigged him on a small circle hook and handed Gina the rod. Like Moses parting the sea, all of the small mahi moved out of the way as the largest among them inhaled the snapper. After several jumps I was able to sink a gaff into what would end up being a 19.5 pound mahi.
As we were prepping the mahi for the fishbox we heard what sounded like a washing machine. As we turned to look back at the whale we couldn’t believe our eyes. The great white was back at the whale feeding. With my GoPro in hand we attempted to get a little closer, however the white slipped beneath the surface and disappeared. With the white shark out of sight the place turned into SeaWorld. As bummed as I was about not getting a shot of the white, I was able to get a great short video of a big tiger shark that suddenly appeared. It is hard to explain our excitement.
At this point the dragger had moved on and it was just us with the whale. There were sharks all over the place. As we franticly looked for the great white, a huge shadow was coming at us. I ran to the front of the boat and stuck the camera under water. I was actually shaking as I could clearly see the white swimming just below the surface. The great white looked as wide as the beam of our boat. It swam right by us. Watching this huge animal move with such ease sent shivers down my spine. Despite being just below the surface, not a ripple of water did it cause. I couldn’t wait to get home to see what I might have captured on video.
As it turns out, I caught on video a mahi feeding frenzy, the tiger shark swimming by, and yes, I got a few seconds of the great white. On top of that, Gina snapped a great still shot of the great white’s head out of the water feeding on the whale. I’m very fortunate to have shared this day with my wife Gina. It was a day that we will always remember. You can check out pictures and videos of our adventures at www.fishgaak.com
