On Saturday, Danny McDaniel was kayaking near Santa Catalina island off the southern California coast when he felt something big strike the side of his boat. It was a great white shark that Ben Frable, Marine Vertebrates Collection Manager at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography later estimated to be 17-20 feet long. How did they know how big it was? They measured the teeth left lodged in the kayak. From CNN:
"I felt like I was being pushed like a toy in the water," said McDaniel, who lives in San Diego.
The shark had sunk its teeth into the back end of the boat and pushed McDaniel around till he was face-to-face with (his kayaking partner in another boat).
"The whole upper body of the shark was out of water," he said. "It was humongous."
The shark soon let go and went deep into the water, according to McDaniel, who said the whole ordeal lasted about five seconds…
"It is pretty amazing and encouraging that such large animals are still able to exist out there with fishing activities and human encroachment and environmental change," Frable said.
"Big individuals like these, especially if they are female, are very important for species' health and survival as they can produce and have produced more offspring than others."
