Lance Williams met a mako shark in the Gulf of Mexico.
He was out with friends on January 24, when the 700-800lb shark showed up.
Mr. Williams told WKRG “This big guy was just up from the depths, right on my fin and he came he did kind of a quick you on me and I said, ‘this guy is about to bite me and dear Jesus save me’..and then he did, he curved around and that’s when I was able to yell ‘send me a gun’. You guys gotta send me a gun.”
His friends tossed him a speargun, which he was unable to grab and it quickly began sinking. He dove for the gun, catching just as the shark approached him. Williams was able to deter the shark from coming any closer and then everything “got really cool.”
He was able to climb back aboard the boat, but decided he wanted to see the shark again. So he jumped back in the water and ended up spending around 20 minutes with the shark.
However, things changed when the group decided to feed the shark a dead barracuda.
“I had been eye to eye with this shark for approximately 20 minutes just looking at him dead in the eye as he would come by me, and just watching his eye move as he would pass and it was like we had an understanding. At that point he had a different look so I had a sense he was going to take a shot at me and as he came and turned I just extended the gun…gave him a warning pat. He turned and snapped..I said it’s time to go.”
As we have covered before, there has been a heavy debate on whether spearfisherman should feed sharks. The general consensus seems to be that it is frowned upon.
It may be possible that sharks could begin to associate divers with food and look for a handout. However in the event a shark is aggressively pursuing a diver with a fish on the line, it may be best to the drop the fish and give the diver time to make it safely back to the boat.
Shark hunter? What kind of person kills sharks in this day and age? There is simply no reason to purposefully hunt sharks. Enough are killed everyday by commercial fishing vessels and by people cutting off their fins. I would hope people in the United States would be smart enough to realize that Sharks Do Not Need To Be KILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!