Kayak and great white shark

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If you are a regular reader of my blog you will probably remember the sharks love post, which even though is a hoax is still an impressive story! In that powerpoint/video there is one of the most famous pictures running around the Internet - The man in his kayak and the great white shark behind him. If you haven't seen it here is the picture I am talking about:


Is the great white and kayak picture a photoshop fake?
This is the proper definition photo (not the compressed image going around via email which looks fake) and it looks genuine enough so lets look at the facts.

This photo is indeed genuine and was taken from the magazine National Geographic. It was part of an article by Michael C. Scholl and Thomas P. Peschak who were studying sharks without the use of engine noise. This is what the authors had to say about the incident:

Although we had extensively tested the sharks' reactions to an empty kayak and had observed no signs of aggression, this gave us little comfort as we eyed a great white heading straight for us, albeit slowly. Just a metre or so from the craft it veered off, circled and slowly approached from behind. It did this several times, occasionally lifting its head out of the water to get a better look. Then it lost interest, and as it continued on its way we were able to follow a short distance behind. Once we'd come to terms with having nothing between ourselves and a four-metre shark except a thin layer of plastic, our kayak made an ideal research platform for observing great white behaviour in shallow water.

If you are still a little skeptical then I have another great picture that will hopefully dispel all doubts.


Amazing as it is even as a fisherman you would not catch me dead in that kayak no matter what the researchers say! Great whites are scary enough in a full sized boat and a plastic kayak just wouldn't cut it!

Want to tell me what you think - Please leave a comment.