More than 15-foot great white shark caught and released off the tip of Ocracoke
On Friday, March 28, Captain Tim Hagerich of Black Pearl Charters had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with an estimated 1,800-pound great white shark just off the coast of northern Ocracoke Island.
“I have spent thousands and thousands of hours in the ocean, and I have only seen one great white shark in my entire life, and that was a small one at about eight feet,” said Hagerich. “I also asked all the captains at Hatteras Harbor Marina if they have ever seen a great white, and some of them never had even though they’ve lived here their entire lives, so this was something special.”
Hagerich has been working in the Hatteras Island fishing industry for roughly two decades, serving as captain of the Black Pearl for the past six years.
On Friday, he was taking out a group of anglers from China – Atilla Li, Ethan Wang, Jason Chen, and MJ Chen – who had booked a three-day trip to search for sharks off the Outer Banks.
“Right now, I’m going all over the globe trying to catch a thresher shark,” said Li. “This was actually my first time to [Hatteras Island.] I had heard about the good tuna fishing down there, and all the sharks in the area, so it seemed like a great place to go.”
Hagerich takes visiting anglers on shark fishing trips all the time, usually catching black tip sharks, spinner sharks, sandbar sharks, and dog sharks, which are all four feet long at most.
On Friday morning, Hagerich was debating whether the fishing trip should be postponed, as the 25-knot winds and rough waters resulted in iffy fishing and navigation conditions.
“We made it out to the ocean, but not very far – we were only about 200 yards off the north point of Ocracoke,” said Hagerich. “We caught and released a hammerhead shark, and I was happy we caught something because it was so rough, and I was thinking about turning back.”
The 27-foot-long Black Pearl was lingering in 40-foot-deep water just off the tip of Ocracoke Island when the great white shark made an appearance.
“We had the bait out and were waiting for a shark to hit, when all of a sudden Captain Tim saw something big, and yelled that there was a great white shark hanging around the boat,” said Li. “At the time, I had a spare rod that wasn’t being used, and Captain Tim said, ‘Just put the tuna carcass on the hook and throw it down there.’ The great white didn’t pick up the bait immediately – she was finicky about it – but eventually it was hooked.”
“I was looking down at this massive great white shark, and I couldn’t believe it,” said Hagerich. “This fish was triple the times of any marlin I have ever caught, which was a 700-pound blue marlin.”
The great white was hooked at 10 a.m. and the next two hours were a blur of motion that, according to Hagerich, had eerie similarities to scenes from the movie “Jaws.”
“While we were fighting it, it would pull a bunch of line out, then turn around and swim towards the boat, and just stay underneath the boat for a while,” said Hagerich. “So, it was very much a real-life ‘Jaws’ moment.”
Great white sharks typically measure between 11 and 16 feet in length, with females generally being larger than males. The average female is around 15-16 feet long, while males typically reach 11-13 feet, but the biggest great whites can be up to 20 feet long.
Measuring at least 15 feet, the great white that Hagerich and Li connected with off of Ocracoke was easily more than half the length of the Black Pearl.
“At one point, it jumped in the air, and I was just hoping it wouldn’t land in the boat, because it would have definitely sunk us,” said Hagerich.
Hagerich was able to take a quick video of the fight, but most of the time was spent trying to reel the shark close enough to the Black Pearl to designate it as an official catch. Great white sharks are a federally protected species, so they need to be safely released after they are caught.
“After two hours of fighting, we finally got it to the boat where the leader went into the rod, so we could finally call it a catch,” said Hagerich. “The shark was released safely, and went on its way.”
“The whole time we were fighting it, it was like she knew the boat was there, and knew what she was doing the whole time,” added Hagerich. “So it really felt like a modern-day ‘Jaws’ story.”
Li said it was a thrilling experience, and while Hagerich may have been nervous, Li and his fellow anglers didn’t catch on.
“When she was hooked, she was roaming like a freight train,” said Li. “But I had confidence in Captain Tim and our team.”
With the great white lingering in 10 to 40-foot-deep and unusually rough waters, the video of the encounter is a little murky, but the large shadow just under and around the Black Pearl is hard to miss.
“The first thing I did when we got back was to look at Shark Tracker, but we didn’t see any sharks in the area,” said Hagerich. “I’m in the ocean everyday, but I never see great white sharks around, so this was pretty incredible.”
