CAPTAIN HENRY GOREThe shrimp boat Christy Nichole shown listing before it sank. It's captain maintains that a bull shark bit holes in the hull.Of more concern to boaters may be the tale told by Schmall, the veteran shrimp boat captain who says he lost his vessel to a bull shark off the Florida Keys in February.
Most commercial fishermen are familiar with sharks, which often trail their boats to dine on bycatch and other cast off waste. "The sharks are thick out there," Schmall said in a phone interview last month. "They were all around the boat that day."
What happened next was extraordinary by all accounts, and the subject of much speculation. Schmall says a bull shark attacked his boat. Capt. Henry Gore, a longtime friend and fellow shrimp boat skipper who witnessed the sinking, said the creature probably got caught in the propeller. Whatever the exact chain of events, both men say the shark bit huge chunks out of the Christy Nichole, which caused the ship to sink.
When Schmall realized they were sinking, he radioed Gore for help. When Gore arrived about two hours later, he found a shaken crew trying to salvage the ship. Schmall tried to stay aboard and pump out the water as Gore attempted to haul the Christy Nichole to port, but the effort failed. "They abandoned ship and we took 'em home," Gore said in an interview.
CAPTAIN HENRY GOREAnother view of the sinking Christy Nichole. Experts say that shark attacks on boats are rare, but that they do happen.Gore, who shot pictures of the sinking on his cellular phone as he rescued Schmall and his crew, was in awe of the event. "I been at this 20 years," he said, "and I never seen nothing like that."
SHARK VERSUS BOAT
Burgess, who has been investigating shark attacks since the 1950s, said what happened to the Christy Nichole is highly usual and that sharks rarely attack boats. Rather, when it comes to encounters with humans, sharks tend to attack surfers, swimmers and waders – in that order – and even that is exceedingly rare.
"Attacks on boaters fall way back there," he said. "You're going to see shark attacks where you see the most people."
When sharks do attack boats, they are usually Great Whites, who have been known to slam boats and bite hulls or propellars, researchers say. Burgess said Great Whites seem to be attracted to metal and they are often seen near the propellers and dive platforms. Some experts theorize that sharks may be attracted by the electrical field generated by corroding metals below the boat.
The Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, which studies sharks, has documented white shark attacks on boats in Australia, the United States, Canada and South Africa. According to Mote research, there have been more than a dozen boats attacks in False Bay, just south of Capetown, usually when there was active fishing going on.
A Mote Laboratory wrote in a report on Great Whites revealed one particularly dramatic case in 1977 in which 16-foot shark actually leapt into a 20-foot ski-boat, landing almost squarely on top of the captain, who suffered major injuries. Even in its death throes, the shark thrashed violently and bit through fuel and control lines, eventually clamping down on the gunwale.
