Watch: Fisherman’s close call as tiger shark attacks kayak

A piece of yellow plastic was caught between a fisherman and a tiger shark when they met under dramatic circumstances – and all were captured on video – off a Hawaiian island.

Scott Haraguchi was fishing from his kayak on Friday no more than 1.6 km off Kualoa, on the windward side of Oahu, when the shark slammed into the vessel, slashing its jaws into his left side as the stunned bystander pulled his fishing rod. shouted the companion.

Haraguchi, his left leg was dangling in the water and his GoPro was on, he told CNN.

“I looked up and I saw this big brown thing. My mind thought it was a turtle but then I got slammed by it and realized it was a tiger shark.

His GoPro captured the stunned fisherman’s reaction, even after Haraguchi caught a fish.

“Argh, tiger shark,” he shouted to a nearby companion.

“The tiger shark hit me.”

He told CNN that he was able to shoo the shark away from his kayak and catch the fish, although running on adrenaline.

It wasn’t until he returned home and saw the footage that the horror of what had happened hit him.

He believed the shark might have mistaken his kayak for an injured seal, which he spotted soon after, and was counting his blessings, CNN reported.

“I realize life is short, time on earth is short, so make the most of it.”

A shark about 6 meters long was sighted the next day, prompting authorities to close a beach.

This is not the first time that a hunter has become a victim while fishing from a kayak.

In January 2021, Bay of Plenty man caught a great white shark instead of livebaiting for kingfish from his 4m kayak in Bowentown Harbour.

After his kayak was pulled at least 2km, Mike – who did not want to give his surname – used the vessel’s paddle drive to reach his catch.

“I got some of my line back and I was thinking, ‘I should see some color soon’. Then out of nowhere this thought popped into my head and onto the kayak.

“It looked at me, I looked at it and I thought ‘Oh s***’. I had given this guy a hard time. He was furious.”

The shark swam away after Mike cut his fishing line, but the 60-year-old man later found bite marks on the keel and top of his kayak – as well as three tooth fragments in the vessel.

Clinton Duffy, a marine scientist with the Department of Conservation, later confirmed that the pieces belonged to the Great White.

Duffy said at the time that great whites – mostly juveniles – have been reported fairly regularly around Bowentown Channel and Harbor for the past four or five years.

Shark scientist Dr. Riley Elliott launched a research project last year to track and satellite-tag 20 great whites, allowing people to see live on the “Great White App,” including the Bowentown area, where the creatures are traveling.

The incident involving Mike happened three days before 19-year-old Kailah Marlowe was killed by a shark while swimming at nearby Waihi Beach. Her death comes nearly eight years after swimmer Adam Strange, 47, was killed in a multiple shark attack off Muriwai Beach in West Auckland.

And in 2009, Waikato man Maurice Phillips was killed by a great white shark after falling from a kayak on a fishing trip near Clarke Island, Coromandel Peninsula.

However, a coroner was not able to determine whether the 24-year-old man from Ngaruwahia was attacked by a shark before or after he drowned.

Over the past 170 years, 13 lives have been lost in shark attacks across New Zealand.

While about 66 shark species have been identified in the seas around us, about a dozen more will be regularly visited by fishermen and swimmers—warm-water-preferring tiger sharks not among them.

Only a handful of sharks such as the Great White, Mako and Hammerhead that frequent our waters pose a threat to human life.

Duffy said in 2021 that sharks are in most of the waters around New Zealand and are drawn to harbors to feed.

“They’ve always been there. We just forget.

He said the shark that bit Mike’s kayak was acting defensively.

“Given it up, it saw Kayak as a threat.”

The marine scientist said people need to be aware of the risks of fishing from smaller, less stable vessels.

“Personally, I don’t think fishing from a kayak or jet ski is a good idea—certainly don’t get bored of them.”