Up until a few years ago, there had hardly been a white shark sighting in our area. Elmo Horine caught one in 1967 off Navarre pier. In the early eighties, I had a 15 footer come right up to the boat and eat a huge bull dolphin I was fighting. He looked like a submarine. In fifty years of logging thousands of fishing hours in the gulf, that is the only one I’ve ever seen. In the last ten years, I know of quite a few sightings and actual catches by friends of mine.

The question I have is why are they coming here now? We all know big Makos show up in early spring to feed on migrating fish such as cobia, tarpon, and kingfish. But the great whites are a new visitor. Manatees are also a new visitor. Could there be a link?

There are definitely a significant amount more manatees and great whites in our area than ever before but I have no idea why???

The manatees are trying to get away from the inlets in south fla where they're getting chewed up by boats and the white sharks are getting overpopulated in the home waters . Have yall not seen some of the vids of those monsters in south africa??

But manatees and white sharks wouldn't be found in the same areas would they? Anyone heard who might have caught and released the second white shark that was found dead?

In the past ten years, we see manatees every year off Navarre Pier. There was never one sighted the forty years before that. We have tried to find out who caught the second shark but haven’t had any luck. That shark could have been hooked way away from Navarre but happened to float up there. Looking at the location of the hook, I am surprised that the shark died unless it was tail wrapped and came in backwards, (which frequently happens). A “gut hooked” shark will often die as well but this one was hooked in the corner of the mouth.

^^^^this^^^^^. Unless that shark was tailed wrapped and drowned, being brought up during the fight, you can be assured that it didn’t die from that hook in the corner of the mouth. Gut hooked, yes they can sometimes die from that, but you’re not going to hurt any shark hooking them in, or anywhere around the mouth. Most sharks that I’ve seen dead over the years ended up dying from a small hole in the top of the head or in the gills.

Wonder how those got there?? 🤔

As a result of all the man-made bottom structure we have put in for decades now as well as the quotas IMO we have a very different looking fishery than we had even just 20 years ago.

Not going to get into some wild sounding storytime but Great Whites eat other sharks. You can take that to the bank.

The overall numbers of sharks we have in the Northern Gulf is just stupid tourists would not get in the water if they took a flight down the beach but offshore there are even more.

IMO that's why we are getting more White Sharks. And probably will have more in the future. It's not a bad thing but they BIG and mean.

Yeah. Two more even bigger ones washed up in the same area this morning ! The Mayor is trying to keep the publicity down, but the Sherriff is concerned for everyone's safety.
They are going to bring in a college fellar' who is a White Shark "expert". It's a mess down there.

Guilty!

Great white shark tracking site has 8 in northern gulf, somewhere around 60 in gulf from Keys to Texas/Mexico

They should all be destroyed…wrong movie..but a fitting line

^^^
Me neither - use to live in pcola - didnt think great white was anywhere close to that area

Lactic acid from a long exhausting fight maybe? But yeah, those little holes will do it too. When I was a young man we never went offshore without a 12ga and buckshot.

lol! In the 70’s we would shoot them from the pier with buckshot.

I remember back in my early 20s being tied up to a needle rig 30 miles off shore and climbing up to the platform and diving off. Always jumping out of the transom door to cool off. Nowadays I’m like nah I’ll lean over the gunnel and just splash some water on me 😂

We were fishing by one rig years back middle of summer hotter than you know what, watch a guy jump off a swim platform, he went in/out of the water so fast he different even get wet,