{"id":91026,"date":"2025-07-25T09:31:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T09:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/91026\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T09:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T09:31:16","slug":"captains-log-the-shark-i-can-see-is-not-the-shark-i-worry-about-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/91026\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain\u2019s Log: The Shark I Can See is Not the Shark I Worry About | Outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"

I breathe a sigh of relief when I see a shark, It is because if I\u2019m seeing it, that shark has already decided against taking a bite out of me.<\/p>\n

\"GreatFortunately, great white sharks don\u2019t find humans to be very tasty. (Courtesy photo)<\/p>\n

Instead, it is still swimming about for the sake of curiosity, or maybe still engaged in its search for a better supper. If it planned on dining on me, the attack would be sudden, stealthy, and I likely wouldn\u2019t see it coming.<\/p>\n

People swimming or fishing from kayaks, float tubes, paddleboards or even jet skis, tend to worry about sharks, and for good reason. There have been multiple local incidents of sharks bumping kayaks and swimming ominously past paddle boarders.<\/p>\n

Are there more sharks around these days? Possibly, but I do not have enough solid evidence to convince me of a major increase in the local shark population.<\/p>\n

They are probably here because of the amount of good food in our waters, including sea lions and harbor seals.<\/p>\n

Mostly, folks are worried about great white sharks, though it is not the only big shark cruising our local waters.<\/p>\n

I have seen and hooked big mako sharks<\/a> weighing well over 500 pounds, off the coast of Santa Barbara and Carpinteria.<\/p>\n

Makos are capable of attacking a person, but it is rare because this is a long slender and very fast shark, ideally suited for chasing down other prey like large finfish (they love salmon). They are fast as greased lightning.<\/p>\n

People are notoriously slow in the water and easy to catch. That is why great white sharks have us as such an easy option. It is good that we don\u2019t seem to please a white shark\u2019s palate.
\u00a0
When you see a 12-foot white, the girth on that thing is probably 6 to 8 feet.\u00a0It has a very big belly to fill.<\/p>\n

In sportfishing circles, we call the great white shark<\/a> \u201cThe Landlord,\u201d and we know it swims about collecting rent from the community.<\/p>\n

People who take to sea in tiny craft know the risks and choose to pursue their sport anyway. Yes, The Landlord may come collect rent, and it will probably be a surprise and very quick attack. But the chances are miniscule.<\/p>\n

The sight of a large shark cruising nearby is exhilarating because it strikes a primal chord in us. We inherently know our relative place in the food chain, all things being equal.<\/p>\n

Bigger boats are safer, no doubt. I always told my passengers aboard our charter boat, \u201cYou\u2019re at the very top of the food chain \u2026 as long as you stay on the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I breathe a sigh of relief when I see a shark, It is because if I\u2019m seeing it,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":91027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2824,159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-91026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-outdoors","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114913180829192032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}