Highjumping Mako Shark?

[insideout]

Gday all, at smoko today ,a mate of mine who i have known for far to long, and is known for telling tall, tall stories, said that a friend of a friend( i thought, here we go!) used to work on a trawler overseas , and witnessed another deckie get taken by a jumping mako shark! Now i cant say i have ever heard of this before, yet i do know that the Mako shark can get a bad case of the grumps, but to actually line somebody up and take them out of the boat, I automatically thought this is B.S, but thought i would give him the benefit of the doubt, so , with the threat of being called a goose, id thought i would post it here, where i could get some answers.

cheers, Insideout

[Kendall249]

I have seen a photo in a fishing mag of a mako jumping clear out of the water (not great white), the ajoining article sait that it was estimated that at its size it had to be doing 65km/h for it to leave the water. There a doco on great whites that leave the water in pursuit of seals, but that is apparentely only seen at one location in the world. So it believable that sharks jump, but to line up a deckie on a trawler would be doubtful. Although stranger thing have happened.

[Poodroo]

Here is a cool link on the Mako sharks.

Poodroo

http://www.newenglandsharks.com/shortfin.htm

[moondancer]

There was a post earlier this week about makos - I added that a mate of mine tells a (true!!??) story of game fishing off Port Stephens and having a rather large mako free jump into the boat and commence to destroy the cockpit...so....maybe its possible as a freak event! Who knows...L

[Duyz72]

Strange things can happen, not sure if the link within the chat thread still works though

http://www.ausfish.com.au/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1128765347/10#10

[onerabbit]

Mako's are also called the "spinning shark" because they spin as they jump up to 30 ft out of the water, you guys can have that all alone.

Muzz

[DazSamFishing]

Sounds strange for a shark to pinpoint someone in a boat...

However, I went on a fishing charter off the GC a few years back and the deckie told me that when he worked down south they caught a mako... its initial jump was estimated to be 6 meters out of the water and when they got it close to the boat he reckons it jumped inside the boat and thrash around like crazy!

I certainly wouldn't want to have an encounter with one of those...

Daz

[jim_farrell]

There was a guy fishing with his wife in port phillip two years ago. I think he was in a 17-19 foot runabout. Mako hit him in the back of the head and nearly knocked him overboard.
I was of the belief that mako's jump clear regularly. I doubt one would line somebody up in a boat as a feed. May end up in a boat purely by accident.
Jim

[marlinqld]

Pass the bundy rum and happy cabbage please......some tall stories there maybe LOL.... ;) ;) ;D ;D :o ::) ::) :o :P :P ;D

[Big_Ren]

Is there anyway to verify this? It would have made news somewhere if in fact there is an element of truth to it. It is too quirky/freaky for any journo worth their salt to ignore!

[Glenn_Woods]

I was on a charter off Esperance WA about 97' and i hooked a mako while bottom bashing. One of the guys started taking photos and another videoed the fight. This mako jumped a total of 11 times clear of the water. I also heared that a Mr Rex Hunt ended up with a set of these Photos. Anyway, I'll post a photo when i resize it.

Woodsy

[Herm]

No doubt about sharks being able to jump out of the water ( deep water ) but to target a person in a boat ?????? I don't think so unless it was a freak of nature and just plain bad luck for the deckie IMO #:o :o :o

Peter #:)

[Great_White]

Oops didn't realise, Janine had looged me out :-[ :-[ :-[

Peter.

[DazSamFishing]

I read a article in a fisho magazine not long ago and apparently a guy had caught a small trout... got it in and a spaniard leaped out of the water after the trout and struck the bloke in the neck... severing his throat...

I suppose you have to be bloody unlucky to have something like that happen and extremely unlucky to have a mako take you out!

Daz

[snelly1971]

I know of a experienced commercial fisherman here who had a Big Mako turn up to his boat...he reckoned it stalked him for two days...he would go out on deck and walk up the deck to have the shark follow him back and forth...but it never took notice of the 3 deckhands...only the skipper....it had him so freaked out...and this is one old salt hand, that he eventually shot it...I have heard the story several times and spoken to all crew members about there experience ...and by knowing the skipper for so long to be a truthful man ....that i must have to sort of believe his story...

[mattooty]

The story might have been a bit mis-told. A likely scenario could have been that the mako jumped into or towards the boat, thrashing at wat it could get at and has grabbed the deckie?
Maybe?
Spaniards are a mean fish alive or dead. My old man was getting a photo of a 16kg spanish wen he dropped it and it ripped his leg open leaving 16 stitches. Not a pretty sight.
Some fish are just to hairy to keep having close encounters with....
matt

[sleepygreg]

Its a known fact that makos jump. Have spent 30 years fishing of the coast of Central NSW before moving to brisvegas. When we were young and stupid.....we used to berley up small makos to the back of the boat.....feed em a pilly....wait till they took the bait....put no pressure on the line.........wait till they went to the mates berley bucket .....then strike when they were swimmin away from the pot.............a mako always jumps backwards outta the water.
W thought it was hilarious trying to land 3' makos in somone elses boat.

Would never think of doing that now.....downright dangerous and irresponsible. But hey.....when ya young and indestructible>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:S

[Big_unit]

Its a known fact that makos jump. Have spent 30 years fishing of the coast of Central NSW before moving to brisvegas. When we were young and stupid.....we used to berley up small makos to the back of the boat.....feed em a pilly....wait till they took the bait....put no pressure on the line.........wait till they went to the mates berley bucket .....then strike when they were swimmin away from the pot.............a mako always jumps backwards outta the water.
W thought it was hilarious trying to land 3' makos in somone elses boat.

Would never think of doing that now.....downright dangerous and irresponsible. But hey.....when ya young and indestructible>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:S


Thats unreal, legendary infact. ;D ;D [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Grand_Marlin]

Thats funny greg ;D ;D

I was going to say that whenever Makos jump they always do backflips, and they are quite happy to free jump even when not hooked ... I have seen heaps of them free jumping.

Makos will swim up to, and chew on just about anything ... fish, props, boats, balloons... they arent fussy.

In my opinion, if someone got taken in this manner, it would be by absolute sheer bad luck .... I have never seen a Mako try and line something up and jump at it.

They seem to jump for fun a lot of times .... just one big backflip and heaps of splash.

Cheers

Pete

[rjamesy]

If you want proof of high flying makos... check out this guys site.

http://elbanditofishing.com.au (http://elbanditofishing.com.au/pages/snippets.html)
http://elbanditofishing.com.au/media/highflyingmako.mpeg

Jamesy

[rando]

Club Marine magazine ( the insurance company) had an article( quite some years ago now)including pictures of a runabout completely demolished by a mako that jumped into the boat off Perth WA.
The three blokes jumped out into the ocean, then after some time climbed onto the bow and waited for it to die , it was a big shark, and there was nothing left intact in the boat.
But I find it hard to believe that one deliberately took a bloke off the deck.

[Tropicaltrout]

I whitnessed mako jumps they are great, they clear the water easy 8 to 10 feet, and never give up, for one to line up a guy and go the leap I don't know we had one on the deck one day and i was shore it was dead and my co worker steped to close and snap bit him on the foot and instant reaction was to pull away well yuk tore his foot up a bit.

Also seen a big marlin once leap at the boat and snap his bill, would not like it if you got in the way of one of those either.

tt

[Fishin_Dan]

Growing up we used to target Mako's off Sydney occasionally. When hooked they jump all over the place in a big way. One thing we discovered was that as you get them near the boat, they jump directly towards the direction the line is pulling. They seem to know that something (which they can see then) is pulling at them, so they almost attack it to get free. We quickly learnt to stand well to the side of rods when grabbing any traces, and pull sideways.

Maybe that is similar to what happened?

Mako's are well documented for attacking boats, props, berley buckets, etc. Nasty little buggers they are, but geez they fight well...

[Sandman]

Seen a few sharks jump was not close enough to identify them but it is an awsome site. Many years ago in a fishing comp in Lae PNG i was on a 25foot Betram that caught 2 medium sized Spaniards both leaping over the bow rail chasing bait , from memory the only fish landed by line that day on our boat was a yellowfin Tuna, that image has stayed in my mind since.
The other great leap i witnessed was last year out near the beacons in moreton bay with Spaniards chopping up a school of jellybean tuna a 20+Kg fish leaped out with a tuna in its mouth blood pouring out its mouth, buggered if we could catch him though. A week later someone on this site caught a buety out near the beacons.

Mick

[Trevor2]

A close friend (not prone to strong drink or distortion) related that when fishing (with his daughter in a small boat) for spanish off Bundy at a well know spanish location, they saw a spaniard leave the water by a couple of metres and some sort of large shark jump up, grab it in the air and bite it in half. They quickly left the area.

One day we were pulling in many spanish (good bait around) until the sharks arrived. Could not get a spainard in the boat quick enough. It became a bit of a feeding frenzy with the bait, spanish and the sharks. Brought in mostly heads from then on, some spanish were taken very close to the boat with a lot of agitation.

Although I have never seen one jump, I have no doubt they do.

Also had a trustworthy report of a wahoo which jumped on a large boat while bill fishing north of the Breaksea Spit.

I seem to recall a few reports and photos of people speared by bills jumping on the boat. I think there was one about a year or two ago that was well reported.

I have often seen large fish jumping from Moreton to Bundy, always some distance away, so they have not been identified. Could have been sharks, wahoo spanish etc (that shape, not thought to rays). Havn't thought they were dolphins either.

Kind regards Trevor

[Eagle]

I remember about 45 years ago, there was an article in the Melbourne Herald about fishing boats being found floating empty on PPB. After a comprehensive investigation, it was discovered that the occupant of the boat had been taken by a shark. These sharks were singling out the person in the boat and then jumping over the vessel to grab the unfortunate fisherman and carry him into the water as they cleared the boat.
About 30 years ago, I went fishing with a fishing club to Corio Bay (Nth of Yeppoon) and there were Mako sharks jumping across the back of the fishing boats that ventured out past the entrance to the bay. They were very scarey to say the least. So to answer the question, "do Makos' take people out of a boat?" well, you better believe it for your own sake not to mention the welfare of your family. Yes! they can and they do!
Eagle

[Dirtysanchez]

Years ago in the Caribbean there was this poor fellow fishing for I think it was Barracuda or similar, anyway, one got airborn near his boat, flew into the back of the boat at speed. He ducked to miss a head shot but unfortunately his wife was sitting in the shaded area of his flybridge cruiser, and copped the fish in the neck.
She died before emergency services could get to the boat.

It was on Yanky TV, so it must have happened ;D

[death_ship]

;D im gonna have to close the back of my boat in like the pope mobile;D .......splat!!!!!! and yeah i have seen makos freejumping at the pin bar and spaniards getting airborne to at least 10 feet chasing bait fish in indonesia.

[disorderly]

These sharks were singling out the person in the boat and then jumping over the vessel to grab the unfortunate fisherman and carry him into the water as they cleared the boat.
"do Makos' take people out of a boat?" well, you better believe it for your own sake not to mention the welfare of your family. Yes! they can and they do!
Eagle

I think that is BS.
Obviously I'm not a marine biologist or shark expert but if a boats occupant were taken from inside the boat by a shark then it's a freak event.
Wrong place at the wrong time,one in a million situation.
I have dived with sharks,and have seen them jump and just cannot believe that they would or could ,from underwater, line up someone in a boat and grab them and take them out without getting stuck inside the boat.
I reckon you would have more chance of being anally probed by aliens.

Scott

[Sea-Dog]

I think that is BS.
Obviously I'm not a marine biologist or shark expert but if a boats occupant were taken from inside the boat by a shark then it's a freak event.
Wrong place at the wrong time,one in a million situation.
I have dived with sharks,and have seen them jump and just cannot believe that they would or could ,from underwater, line up someone in a boat and grab them and take them out without getting stuck inside the boat.
I reckon you would have more chance of being anally probed by aliens.

Scott

Damn those Aliens... ouch ! :P

[fisher28]

maybe the sharks are really aliens in disguise,and they grab you whilst jumping over your boat,and then anally probe you. but then you are too embaressed and think noone will believe your story,so you hide out somewhere and are never seen again!

[dnej]

A pic of one