Forgive my ignorance but is this an uncommon thing to see a white shark in the gulf ?

Uncommon but not unheard of

Mrs. Irish and I fished a little out in the Gulf with our kayaks and the whole time I was wishing that I had a stainless steel 44 magnum in a cross draw holster. At least it would have given me a fighting chance.

Back when I was younger and my dad and I used to dive, I remember they made these things called "Boom Sticks." They were basically a long pole with a 12 gauge round mounted in the end and the way it worked is if a shark got too close for comfort, you poked him with the stick and it set the round off in the end. As you could image the shark would quit bothering you.

I have commercially, professionally, and recreationaly, fished the Gulf of Mexico over a span of more than 50 years and have had only one white shark encounter. In the late 70's, we were marlin fishing about 50 miles off of Pensacola and I hung a huge bull dolphin. I had him about 15 feet from the boat and this huge white shark came up and ate him nearly in one bite. Me and the guy beside me both hollered white shark at the same time. He looked as big as the giants you see on some of the shark shows. Oddly enough, two have been caught off Navarre Pier. In 1967, Elmo Horine caught one that was 247lbs. He was featured on the local PJC tv channel and donated the jaws to PJC. Just a couple years ago, Ernie Polk caught one off Navarre Pier that was about 10ft. long. I have a picture of it as he pulled it to the pier pilings. If someone will pm their cell number, I will send the pic for you to post. The shark was released.

I've been in pretty much every body of water on the planet quite a bit working and fishing recreationaly for 40 years or so and never seen a white shark. I've seen several hundred of most other kinds. White sharks are not common at all except in a few places where they gather to hunt seals.

If you're in international waters they're not protected. It's a prohibited species in FL, Pacific and Atlantic U.S. waters and Australia I know. You can legally land them but they must be released unharmed. Would have to look at each state for the gulf. They aren't threatened or endangered so no real reason to protect them unless their numbers drop.

You can catch one if you want to. Seems like a lot of work for no return to me.

Posting for Peach

Great White sharks are not really uncommon in the GOM but they tend to be seasonal and most are juveniles. Most recent tracking data, from satellite-tagged fish, show a number come into the gulf late winter and into late spring(likely following the bluefin tuna migration and in much the same areas) then they leave, go around FL and back up the Atlantic coast to the NE. But, as with all apex predators, there are not many to begin with(compared to other shark species) and they usually aren’t right against the shore in the Gulf since we don’t have seals.
Comparatively, makos, a slightly smaller cousin and another member of the mackerel shark family, regularly come right up the beach in Spring following the first pushes of porpoises, cobia and jacks from S FL.

White sharks don't frequent the Gulf very often due to the relatively warm waters. They prefer cooler or even cold water.

We see a lot of makos near the beach during the spring. That is one spectacular shark to catch. They jump higher than a marlin and turn flips in mid air.

I know there’s a lot of research been done,tagging and tracking and such.But truly there’s no telling what’s all out there in the Gulf.Water covers like 70% of the earth,with like 90% being ocean.That’s a damn lot of water to take an inventory...

Yes they are. Fast and acrobatic. 3 guys on the Sea Ya Later were cobia fishing just off the first bar just east of Navarre pier in 2007 and hooked up a 1063 lb Mako. They saw a bunch of blood in the water and went to investigate and that big joker had corralled a group of porpoise up shallow and was eating them.

They were only in a 23 ft monkey boat and my buddy Paul Simms on the Mother Lode, who was also cobia fishing, saw what was happening and came up and helped them get it subdued. They didnt have anything in the way of tail ropes or flying gaffs on the samller boat, which wasnt much bigger than the shark, so he came in and saved the day. He said when they hit it in the gills with the flying gaff, that shark went absolutely nuts. Mako's are good eating fish too.

As much as I've fished, I've personally never seen a white shark in the Gulf. Someone caught a 9-10 foot white shark off the Navarre pier back in Feb last year if I'm not mistaken. I saw video of them in the surf reviving and releasing it.

Ocearch's tagging and tracking data are doing a very good job of clearing up some common misconceptions. White sharks generally go where the food is. Water temp doesn't seem to have much impact on them. If given a choice between warmer and colder water, they will seek warmer.

6 year study done by Washington University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:
https://www.washington.edu/news/201...o-warm-water-whirlpools-in-the-atlantic/

I have a picture of my daughter sitting beside that 1063lb mako. If someone will pm me their cell #, I will send them the picture to post.

I’ve put a few makos in the boat from offshore trips. All 150-400 pounds. We’ve caught a few larger but could not come to the decision to kill those. It was just too much shark and we didn’t want to turn and burn to save the meat. They are excellent eating, almost better than tuna...almost.

Peach’s daughter with the 1,063 lb mako:

OMG....

SWIIIIIIMMMMM!!!!!.............................

Good grief what a beast !

Swim....SWIm ..SWim SWIM SWIMM SWHHHMMMM.....