Was it a Great White?

[rawls]

I was diving off my home waters...NC...on a wreck named the Spar a few days ago...Great wreck...A fully intact Coast Guard ice breaker...I don't like to admit this but I overstayed my bottom time by a few minutes. So my computer read...7 minute stop. So I get on the hang line with the other two divers I was with. They surfaced after their 3 minute hang. So here I was just hanging out at 15 fsw for another 4 minutes. When the 4 minutes were up I got ready to surface. We were on a small 6 passenger boat and I looked up to make sure I was clear of the bottom of the boat. When I looked up I saw something out of the left corner of my eye. It was about 20 yards away and no doubt a shark. It was about 8 ft in length and was swimming away from me. Then it turned left and I could now see the side of it's face and I thought...HOLY $)(!^ that looks like a Great White. For some reason I wasn't scared, but I did check my wetsuit after the dive just in case:mooner: I watched it for a few seconds until it swam out of sight, then I surfaced. I told everyone there was shark about 15 feet down. The captain asked what kind was it. I said I can't be completely certain but I swear it looked like a Great White. He said...Nah...It was probably a sand tiger. I told him...I have seen sand tigers on about every dive I make and it wasn't a sand tiger. Plus...you don't usually see a sand tiger at 15 ft. They usually hang on the wrecks where we dive. He said it could have been a Bull. Nope...Had a Bull follow me up an anchor line once...Not fun I knew it wasn't a Bull because I saw enough of the head to determine that. He refused to believe it was a White and I questioned my eyes also. Plus...It wasn't as large as I would picture a Great White. But it stuck with me the rest of the day and into the next. There was another strange occurrence and my friend noticed it also. There were about 6 barracudas hanging around us on the hang line. Now cudas usually keep a certain distance. If you swim toward them they just back up and keep the same distance. Well these hung right on us. I didn't see it but my friend said there was one almost touching the back of my shoulder. And the others were sticking very close by. Very unusual. Were they scared of something? Didn't consider it at the time. Now...Let me qualify something...Great Whites don't usually frequent NC waters but there have been several Summers in the past that a mother and her pup (are they called pups? Hellova pup) have been spotted and my LDS even has video of one sighting. Go to www.discoverydiving.com So they do come around...I guess to have their offspring.... The next night another diving buddy named Candy called and she had talked to Margaret Ann, who I was on the dive with. She says..Bobby... Margaret Ann said you dived the Spar and you thought you saw a Great White. I said...Candy...I can't be certain but I swear it looked like one. She asked how long it was...I told her it looked to be about 8 ft...She laughed and said...That was the baby...She said that some divers had spotted a mom and her pup from a dive boat swimming on the surface the week before... ON THE SPAR...They estimated the mom to be about 14ft. Can I be 100% certain it was a Geat White...No...Do I believe it was...I can only say it looked like a Great White to me. And god how graceful it was. Finally...If it was a Great White... and it was the baby...Where in the heck was the mom while I was hanging out by myself in 15 ft of water

[jbd]

.....Where in the heck was the mom while I was hanging out by myself in 15 ft of water

Just out of your view sizing you up as a dinner prospect

[Jason Ooi]

Scared....G...W....Sharks look for foods:scubadive

[stevetim]

Hence my signature. I have heard of a couple of divers here in South Florida ID'ing a White while pretty far out in about 300 feet of water, if I remember correctly. They were spearing.
What was the bottom depth at the time you saw 'it'?
Migration time, huh?

[rawls]

Hence my signature. I have heard of a couple of divers here in South Florida ID'ing a White while pretty far out in about 300 feet of water, if I remember correctly. They were spearing.
What was the bottom depth at the time you saw 'it'?
Migration time, huh?

We were out about 30 miles...Depth was 105...Shark at 15. Momma...Who knows...There was a diver spearing earlier...He left just as we started the dive...Was on a different boat who was finishing their dives...The Great Whites that have been sighted off NC have all been in July so I guess it is a migration thing...

[7milehi]

There is a video of a GW taken from a dive boat off of NC coast in the summer of 2000. When I find it I'll post the link.

[Trisha]

Nope, not an expert, but was the tail a typical large upper lobe/smaller lower lobe? Or was it moon/crescent shaped? Only a few sharks have that (mako, salmon shark, porbeagle.) Actually, I'd rather try to i.d. the tail!

[ReefGuy]

Bite marks also make for good identification.

[LiteHedded]

8 feet?
maybe a maco?

[Lamnid]

well they have a pretty circumglobal distribution so it's more than likely you saw one. just about as far north as UK and as far south as soon as they meet the southern ocean. What a cool thing to see! All you could do to make sure is to check out fishbase.org and see which ither typ0es of shark have been spotted in the region and try to eliminate those species.