Great White spooted in Fort Pierce

[Fishing Report]

FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- The rash of great white shark encounters in the Pacific Ocean, now has reached the Atlantic Ocean off the Treasure Coast.

Over the weekend, a group of four divers competing in the Fort Pierce Open spearfishing tournament had a rare encounter of their own with a great white shark - one of the sea's most feared predators.

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At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Steve Maldonado, of Palm Bay, and three of his friends were about to enter the water in 130 feet northeast of Fort Pierce Inlet.

One diver jumped in with his speargun, and immediately saw a large shadow out of the corner of his eye, wheeled around and drew his gun for protection. He then slowly back-pedaled his way to the safety of the boat and scrambled on board

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[Fishing Report]

Morales, 31, said he was surprised, but he stayed pretty calm. He estimated it was about 30 feet from him and turning towards him.

"The water was very clear, and I could easily see it was a big shark, but I wasn't too concerned with trying to identify it," he said. "I just focused on the task at hand - kick towards the boat and keep the gun pointed at the shark."

Jeremy Reed was cutting sardines and tossing them overboard as chum, but had only tossed over a few cuttings when the shark arrived. Maldonado noticed the large shark would not leave. They then tossed in a large chunk of snapper carcass from a catch last week to keep the shark close to the boat. That gave him the opportunity to get his GoPro video camera on a pole to video the shark as it swam close.

They estimated it to be about 12 to 14 feet in length.

Great white sharks are considered very rare in Florida waters, however, there have been occasional sightings and catches numbering about one to two per year between Miami and Cape Canaveral. They are more common off the New England states and in southern Canada's offshore waters.

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