Hi Phil,
How goes the night shift?
That was an interesting article on the great Whites - thank you. I can't say it surprises me though. I have been predicting that more of the big sharks would start showing up pretty soon, as there are a lot more seals along our coasts now than in many years. Back about 2002 I think it was -I was doing a lot of Striper fishing around the Isles of Shoals off New Hampshire, and on some of those Islands - the rocks would be covered with seals, and other fishermen and Lobstermen were talking about seeing big sharks around at that time. I didn't see any myself though. I remember thinking - I hope some big sharks do show up and help control the growing seal population. There are way too many seals now.
Like that article said, back before that Jaws movie - after which they started killing as many sharks as they could - there were enough sharks around to help control the numbers of seals.
In Alaska - At the Power plant where I worked - one of the shift engineers was an old Salmon gill netter, from the days when they could only use sail to power the gill net boats, and he told of having to carry a rifle on board to shoot the seals out of their nets because they would go along and just bite the heads off all the salmon caught in the net and making them useless for sale. He said that there would be whole herds of seals doing this and it would ruin all their hard work if they didn't shoot them. He said that sometimes, they would take an extra hand along on board just to kill seals. Now - the do- gooders and bunny huggers have got laws passed that wont allow this any more - so there have got to be way too many seals today. The balance of nature needs to be restored.
Like the article said - the Great Whites are not interested in eating people - but it still might not be a bad idea to get you a little bit bigger boat? as they might mistake you for a funny looking seal.
I am thinking real strongly about selling my little fresh water boat and getting another center console salt water boat, as I have found that I really do prefer salt water fishing. I have noticed there are some very good deals out there on used boats right now and I am thinking real strong on taking advantage of that. I am thinking - maybe a 21 foot Parker boat.
Tight lines and bouncing bobbers.