Posted on: Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Shark spotted might have been great white

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

A pair of Leeward Coast charter boat operators suspect they saw an 18- to 21-foot-long great white shark Sunday, but couldn't say for sure if they had actually seen the fearsome ocean predator.

Although marine biologists say great white sharks migrate from Northern California to Hawai'i waters each year, usually between April and July, they have not been seen in large numbers. A pair of dolphin attacks off the same area last summer prompted the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to urge caution for boaters and divers in the area.

Victor Lozano, owner of Dolphin Excursions, said he watched with awe when he saw the shark burst out of the water as it attacked something.

"It was something big," he said. "I have never, ever — and I have been in and around the ocean for 20 years — seen an attack like this one, except on TV in waters off the Farallon Islands."

"It was very large, and we saw a lot of white," said Lozano, who said his boat was about 150 yards away from the attack, which happened about 9 a.m. nearly two miles outside the Wai'anae Small Boat Harbor.

Scot Cameron, a dive captain, said the shark was 15 feet away when it glided past his boat, which is nine feet wide. He said the head was on one side of his boat and the dorsal fin on the other. He knew from experience that it wasn't a tiger shark or a whale shark, both of which he has seen numerous times. "It was something I had never seen before," he said. "You could just see this big black shadow perpendicular to us. I started the engine to get a closer look and it dove down."

Marine biologists say the shark could easily have been a great white, but there is no way to know for certain.