Last weekend, I watched a video on Facebook showing a couple of guys kayak fishing, which seemed pleasant enough until you realized one of them was being followed very closely by a shark.
And, not just a little shark, this one measured roughly the same size as the kayak — 13 feet. I was super intrigued, and maybe a little concerned, because the video was posted to a couple of Sunshine Coast Facebook pages and gave the location as “Half Moon Bay.” (I was already writing the headline in my mind.)
So, I decided to track these guys down by leaving messages on their Instagram pages and, while I waited to hear back, sent out a couple of inquiries, one to the DFO and one to the University of British Columbia (UBC).
In the meanwhile, I did connect with the guy who was being followed by the shark and he had a pretty exciting story to tell, except, as he explained, the incident happened in Half Moon Bay, California, not the one on our Sunshine Coast.
So, it was a great reminder to me and, hopefully others, as to why it’s so important to check your sources before sharing information on social media.
And, after he stopped laughing at my story, I had a very interesting conversation with Daniel Pauly, principal investigator of Sea Around Us, a research initiative at UBC, located at the Institute for Oceans and Fisheries.
Pauly assured me that, despite the migration of some species of fish due to global warming, large sharks are not common in the waters of the West Coast. He notes the elusive sixgill shark, is found in our waters, but is no threat to humans.
“Sharks have every reason to be afraid of us,” he said. “And they typically only attack things that are half their body size or smaller.”
He also turned me on to the fascinating website FishBase (fishbase.se/search.php) which is where you’ll find everything and anything you ever wanted to know about fish from around the world.
