Rick Austin knew he had hooked a big one as his fishing rod bent and he reeled furiously from his kayak off the Nova Scotia coast, but he never dreamt there would be a great white shark on the end of the line.
On a perfect summer morning July 30, when the wind was just right and the water was calm, Austin anchored his kayak off Kingsport in the Minas Basin, which feeds into the Bay of Fundy. He was looking for striped bass, and he set out his fishing rods with baits.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to get too far out because it was my first time out there, and also I was alone,鈥� he said in an interview Tuesday from his home in Eastern Passage, N.S. 鈥淲hen I got there, I anchored, and everything was perfect. It was a perfect scenario.鈥�
But after three hours without a single bite, he decided to switch up his bait, putting a live mackerel on a stainless steel hook. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 very long, just minutes and my reel starts to click,鈥� he recalled.
Austin, a retired Royal Canadian Air Force sergeant, said his thoughts went to the 1975 movie 鈥淛aws鈥� because of a scene in which a character鈥檚 reel is clicking as he prepares for a big catch. 鈥淭his is exactly what I did. However, I had no idea it was a shark 鈥� ever 鈥� the entire time it was out there.鈥�
He turned on the GoPro camera on his hat and began trying to reel in his catch. 鈥淚t was quite the adrenalin rush for sure,鈥� he said with a laugh. 鈥淚 sincerely thought it was a dolphin or a huge striped bass.鈥�
Then he saw the large, grey fish he had hooked swim near the surface, mere feet from the bow of his kayak. On the video he filmed, he can be heard exclaiming 鈥淗oly lifting!鈥� and a few other choice words, before he decided he would need to cut the line.
He said after being cut loose the shark swam a little distance and breached, then returned to circle Austin鈥檚 kayak before taking off. 鈥淢y heart was thumping so fast that I couldn鈥檛 hear anything 鈥� the birds and stuff 鈥� if they were even there, I was totally unaware of,鈥� he said.
Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark, a veterinarian at Dalhousie University, helped confirm the animal Austin hooked was indeed a great white shark. He said it could be identified by its stocky body profile, distinct dorsal fin and black colouring on its top. The other shark species that are similar in the Bay of Fundy waters are porbeagle and mako sharks, but they are slimmer and bluish, he said.
The shark was a juvenile, between 1.5 and two metres in length, and probably weighed between 45 and 70 kilograms, he said.
鈥淎t that age they鈥檙e kind of like puppies. They have oversized things like their pectoral fins and their tail fins are actually wider.鈥�
But Austin did the right thing by cutting the line and letting the animal go, he said.
鈥淥ne of the things you have to realize is a lot of species of sharks have a bit of a temper,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen you hook them up, they鈥檒l come back and wreak vengeance on you. They鈥檙e quite capable of retaliatory measures 鈥� you鈥檙e messing with animals that are peak apex predators in the ocean. They really rule that world.鈥�
An abundance of marine mammal food combined with conservation efforts that have helped population numbers could be attracting more sharks to Canadian waters, Harvey-Clark said.
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e in the sweet spot for the species right now,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t probably means we鈥檙e going to see an increase in numbers here.鈥�
He added that the hook left in the shark would likely not do the animal much harm. 鈥淭he sharks heal very quickly,鈥� he said. 鈥淭heir metabolic rate is amazing.鈥�
Austin, 61, said he hopes the animal has recovered from its ordeal of being hooked.
鈥淚t probably was hanging around me for quite a while, which is kind of scary in itself,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen it finally saw something that it really wanted, which was the live mackerel.鈥�
Austin stayed behind that Sunday and fished 鈥� still oblivious that the one that got away was a white shark 鈥� but he didn鈥檛 hook anything else. Now that he knows, the story is more than enough.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want another experience like that,鈥� he said, with a laugh. 鈥淭hank you very much.鈥�
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2023.
鈥� Austin鈥檚 video of his shark experience can be viewed at . Note video contains obscene language.
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