Joe encounters Big Nemo near Gansbaai

This is Joe, he surfs the area around Gansbaai religiously, often alone – Well no surfers at least…

Just west of Hermanus lies the small village of Hawston, known for its quiet fishing lifestyle and blue flag beaches. This is Joe Hein’s choice for a nice morning paddle, and he travels to Hawston from Kleinmond at least 100 days out of the year. While many may be shocked at encountering a shark, Joe was not overly surprised when this day came.

“I normally surf alone, so I had mentally prepared myself for the day I would encounter a shark,” says Joe. “I think that’s important, that surfers do think about what they would do if it happens without obsessing over it.”

Joe was paddling out past the breakers away from the beach towards the take off zone, about 100 meters out, when he noticed a splash and a dark object behind him. “In that moment, I didn’t immediately think ‘shark’, I thought/hoped for a seal, dolphin, whale or anything else… She must have been drawn closer by my splashing as I paddled out and followed me right past the breakers.” Joe immediately stopped paddling to find out what it was, and that’s when his worst fear came true. The slow moving shark appeared right next to him.

“When I recognized her as a shark and that she was interested in me, I immediately tucked my hands and legs on top of my board. Those first 30 seconds are crucial – the shark is going to determine how the story ends and you want to remain as calm as possible. Just remember that sharks don’t want to eat you, all of these incidents are accidents.”

“She swam right next to my board – close enough for me to easily touch the top of her body. She was so close that her dorsal fin and tail were breaking the surface and I had a good chance to take a good look at her while she was taking a look at me. Her dorsal fin was really bent up and looked like it had a hole near the middle of her fin, and she was easily over 4.0m in length.”

This is Big Nemo who, despite her blemishes, is a real beauty and a celebrity in Gansbaai.

But the shark must have liked what it saw as she continued to circle Joe for several minutes. “I never felt nervous when I could see her, but a few times she would dive down or move behind me and I would start to feel a bit nervous. Within a few seconds she would return again and circle close enough to touch. It went on for so long that eventually I started to talk to her in a stern voice, ‘I’m a human – I’m not what you think I am! I’m not your food, now piss off!”

After nearly four minutes, that’s exactly what she did. “I waited for another minute just to make sure she was gone, before quietly paddling very gently towards the beach, fortunately then a set came that took me in.”

Hawston is two bays away from Gansbaai, the white shark capital of the world and home to the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, who Joe contacted after his encounter. White shark researchers use dorsal fins as finger-prints to identify individual white sharks, as each fin has unique markings. It turns out, the bent-finned shark Joe met was a Gansbaai celebrity.

“We collect dorsal fin shots of every shark we see and we have been collecting dorsal fin images for the past five years, so we have a good idea of who’s in the bay. After Joe explained the unique shape of the fin to me, I sent him a fin ‘line-up’ to see if he could recognize any as his curious shark,” says DICT researcher Michelle Wcisel. “Sure enough, we figured out that the fin he had seen belonged to ‘Big Nemo,’ a 4.2m – 4.5m female that returns to Gansbaai every year during the beginning of summer.”

“Great white sharks are blessed and cursed with natural curiosity, which gets them and us into trouble,” explains Michelle. “When a white shark detects something unusual in its environment, it’s natural for the shark to go and investigate it. Unfortunately, the best way for a white shark to figure out what an object is, is to put it in its mouth – which happens to be lined with razor-sharp teeth. If only sharks had hands – then we’d write about ‘white shark gropings’ instead of ‘white shark attacks’! I think Joe reacted exactly as one should and I hope people will learn from his experience.”

It’s hard to miss Big Nemo’s dorsal fin. It’s the one with the large hole through the middle and what helped Joe identify his Hawston surfing partner.

As for Joe – you’ll still find him in his spot at Hawston. “I went out for a paddle in the harbour (where it is safer) the next day, just to gauge my fear, and it felt OK, so at this stage two weeks on, I hardly ever think of sharks in the water anymore. In fact it almost feels like this experience has given me more confidence in respect to shark encounters. My advice is to just spend a moment of thought about how you would react when it happens. It always happens in a different way than one imagines beforehand, but it would be good to know that you will not panic, and to be confident when an incident occurs, and then to be able to act in accordance with the situation.”