Charter captain tags 12-foot great white shark off Hilton Head Island

HILTON HEAD ISLAND — A charter fisherman recently hooked his fifth great white shark of the season, but it wasn’t an easy feat by any means.

Chip Michalove caught, tagged and released the 12-foot shark off Hilton Head Island on Feb. 4 and will work with scientists in Massachusetts to track its movements over time.

Michalove, owner of Outcast Sport Fishing, said he usually sees about 10 great whites during the winter months, and he specifically went out in search of one this trip. He tried four different spots before finding one with a decent water temperature and tide movements.
“And we sat there for a couple hours,” Michalove said. “And typically when we’re fishing for great whites they’ll swim up to the boat. You see them.”

But his back was turned when this particular great white approached the boat.

He had two baits out on the surface on balloons. The large female grabbed both baits and “took off like a bus,” he said. The action caught Michalove and his fishing partner by surprise.

“We look up and the rods are taken off and the balloons are scooting across the surface,” Michalove said.

At first he thought the rods were tangled but the shark had eaten both baits. Michalove used false albacore as bait that day.
Usually he fights the sharks with one rod so that he’s able to get cameras out and a rope around the rod to ensure it stays in the boat.

But there was no room for error on this particular day since only two people were aboard the boat and the two rods were bent over, Michalove said.

To make matters worse, Michalove’s partner had a blown-out rotator cuff.

The two men were able to fight around both rods and safely get the shark to the side of the boat, where they placed acoustic and pop-up tags on her. She was then released.

Greg Skomal, a scientist for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, will use data from the tags to examine the shark’s behavior and hopefully help better manage the species. The information is used to ensure the population remains sustainable and healthy, Skomal said.

Great white sharks remain off the southeastern United States during winter months. They’ll go as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, Skomal said.

The species spends summers eating seals and whales in places like Massachusetts, New York and Nova Scotia.
At this stage, the species is not listed as endangered. But great whites are protected to the extent that fishermen can’t keep them. There are indicators that the population is coming back after being overfished during the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, Skomal said.HILTON HEAD ISLAND — A charter fisherman recently hooked his fifth great white shark of the season, but it wasn’t an easy feat by any means.

Chip Michalove caught, tagged and released the 12-foot shark off Hilton Head Island on Feb. 4 and will work with scientists in Massachusetts to track its movements over time.

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Michalove, owner of Outcast Sport Fishing, said he usually sees about 10 great whites during the winter months, and he specifically went out in search of one this trip. He tried four different spots before finding one with a decent water temperature and tide movements.
“And we sat there for a couple hours,” Michalove said. “And typically when we’re fishing for great whites they’ll swim up to the boat. You see them.”

But his back was turned when this particular great white approached the boat.

He had two baits out on the surface on balloons. The large female grabbed both baits and “took off like a bus,” he said. The action caught Michalove and his fishing partner by surprise.

“We look up and the rods are taken off and the balloons are scooting across the surface,” Michalove said.

At first he thought the rods were tangled but the shark had eaten both baits. Michalove used false albacore as bait that day.
Usually he fights the sharks with one rod so that he’s able to get cameras out and a rope around the rod to ensure it stays in the boat.

But there was no room for error on this particular day since only two people were aboard the boat and the two rods were bent over, Michalove said.

To make matters worse, Michalove’s partner had a blown-out rotator cuff.

The two men were able to fight around both rods and safely get the shark to the side of the boat, where they placed acoustic and pop-up tags on her. She was then released.

Greg Skomal, a scientist for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, will use data from the tags to examine the shark’s behavior and hopefully help better manage the species. The information is used to ensure the population remains sustainable and healthy, Skomal said.

Great white sharks remain off the southeastern United States during winter months. They’ll go as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, Skomal said.

The species spends summers eating seals and whales in places like Massachusetts, New York and Nova Scotia.
At this stage, the species is not listed as endangered. But great whites are protected to the extent that fishermen can’t keep them. There are indicators that the population is coming back after being overfished during the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, Skomal said.