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Yum Yum Yellow in the Red Triangle

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http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_15801580

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Kayaker comes face-to-face with great white shark as it tips his boat
By Allen Bushnell

PIGEON POINT -- A 45-year-old kayak fisherman from Pinole angling near Pigeon Point on Saturday came face-to-face with the biggest fish of his life -- a great white shark.

Adam Coca launched from a small cove just north of Pigeon Point on the San Mateo coast. Located within the "Red Triangle," an area described by Año Nuevo on the south, the Farallon Islands to the west and Bodega Bay north, this section of water is known for the frequent sightings and occasional interactions with great white sharks.

Coca was paddling his yellow Ocean Kayak Prowler, a 13-foot sit-on-top fishing boat, and had just stopped to fish in about 30 feet of water when he encountered a great white.

"I was south of Bean Hollow off those beaches toward Pigeon Point," Coca said. "I felt it hit the nose of my boat from below, like boom! kaboom! then it flipped the boat over. I was halfway in the water, basically an anchor point as the shark chewed my boat and pushed. We must have done three or four full circles like that."

Coca was finally able to climb atop his overturned boat and hugged the stern while the shark continued to chew on the nose.

"I held onto my boat and looked right into its eye," Coca said. "The shark was at least as long as my boat."

The great white became tangled in Coca's paddle leash and was distracted by the flailing paddle, toward which it turned and bit, severing the leash. After that last bite the shark submerged and disappeared.

"I flipped my boat back over and jumped in quick like a cat," Coca quipped. "Then I just hung onto the rails and braced for the next bump, which never came."

Alerted by Coca's distress call on the VHF radio, other kayak anglers quickly appeared on the scene and helped collect his floating gear, including the damaged paddle that had a gash in one of the blades.

Despite some water leakage from tooth holes in the bow, Coca was able to paddle his Prowler 13 safely into shore with just a scratch on his shin, and neat triangular holes in one wetsuit bootie and paddling shoe.

The bite marks on the bottom of the boat measured 18 inches at the widest portion of the arc, and the individual tooth marks were about 2 inches apart, Coca said.

In July 2007 kayak fisherman Dan Prather had an almost identical experience at Bean Hollow. He was thrown from his kayak while a great white chewed on the nose of his boat. Prather also was able to paddle in safely with no injuries.

Santa Cruz shark expert Sean Van Sommeran from the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation is not surprised at this recent interaction or the location.

"It's a matter of acclimation," Van Sommeran said. "Just like the fly fishermen have gotten used to fishing rivers 10 feet from the bears, we have to get used to being in their shark territory."

According to Sommeran, "safety while in the ocean is a matter of familiarity and possessing some situational awareness."

Understandably, Coca is relieved to have escaped his close encounter relatively unscathed. He plans to return to ocean fishing, even at Bean Hollow, as soon as he repairs his boat. "Oh yeah, you gotta get back on the horse, for sure."

When asked his thoughts while staring at the chewing shark, Coca said, "I have these stripes on the bottom of my boat, a pattern of camouflage, like a home-grown shark shield. I just thought I might need a new pattern." [/quote]
 
The Navy did a study on colored objects and sharks... that is where Yum Yum Yellow came from, they found it to be the main color hit :lol: Reason #1 not to get a yellow SOT Kayak.
 
GreshamH said:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_15801580
"I have these stripes on the bottom of my boat, a pattern of camouflage, like a home-grown shark shield. I just thought I might need a new pattern."
[/quote]

Hahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! :bigsmile: I remember seeing that they sell similar patterns for surfboards.

Those Mythbuster guys from SF also did experiments during shark week about yum yum yellow. I don't remember how it turned out though.
 
My buddy and I launch out of bean hollow in a canoe and fish out there, lots of halibut to be had right at the mouth of the cove, likewise for PP only more rock fish.

Maybe we need to paint the boat yellow to up the excitement level.

Anyway, good to know he's alive, that stretch is absolutely loaded with sharks.
 
PP it's routine to see them.

Myth Busters is a bunk show, I hold little to no stock in their findings. The US Navy conducted extensive testing on this, them I trust (I use their Dive tables).
 
Thats what the old time divers say as well. They laugh at me when I tell them that was the spot I learned to abalone dive at. Matt got teh same reaction from Steelies. Matt told him the channel we were rocking and he told Matt about all the sightings in that channel :lol: You know the one, close to shore and shallow just of the point. Great ab spot (when it was legal) and I guess great GW spot as well.
 
tuberider said:
Maybe we need to paint the boat yellow to up the excitement level.

Sounds like that would work! MIght ad a different shade of yellow on the inside depending on the sharks...Hey Jeremy, did you get my PM?
 
My buddy Frank (retired commercial abalone diver, "deep diver" or "deep" for short, now known as "shallow"), was pinned to a rock by a GW years ago at PP. He was facing a large rock (it's all giant boulders down there as you know), the shark approached him from behind and attempted to bite him, it didn't succeed due to the north/south angle of the bite. Frank wedged himself between two boulders and watched the shark cruise past and circle him for over an hour, luckily he was on a hookah and could stay down for quite a while. That was his closest call in over 20 years of diving, including the Farallons where he spent the most time.
 
That rocks is the out part of the channel I was speaking about :)
 
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