STATE

Rare great white shark spotted off Panama City Beach

Katie Landeck / Panama City News Herald
A great white shark circles a boat belonging to Kelly Girl Charters recently in Gulf of Mexico waters off Panama City Beach. [Contributed photo]

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The fish were biting, but they weren’t making it onto the boat.

When a fin surfaced, charter captain Mark Kelley of Kelley Girl Charters found out why — a massive great white shark was circling the boat looking for an easy meal.

“I’ve been doing this 35 years,” Kelley said. “I’ve seen it all. There is not much out there that excited me anymore, but this excited me.”

The shark was 10 to 12 feet long and circled the boat repeatedly, to the delight of the anglers on board. The shark made a couple of passes at a fish floating on the surface in the video recorded.

“They don’t know how lucky they are (to have seen it),” Kelley said.

Great whites are not a common sight in the Gulf of Mexico. They’re out there for sure — earlier this year was one caught off of the Navarre Pier and scientists were recently tracking Miss Costa, a tagged great white, off of Panama City Beach — but generally they like to stick to cooler waters.

This is the second time Kelley said he has seen a great white while fishing on his boat the Lady Kelley.

The last time was 20 years ago, and it’s a tale Kelley was a little reluctant to tell because it is almost unbelievable.

Dolphins were circling his boat, he said, making a racket and jumping.

Then, the great white “hit and bit the tip of (one of the dolphin’s) tails off. It could not go nowhere,” Kelley said. “The great white appeared, and ate the porpoise in two bites. I could have made a million dollars if we had cell phones back then. It was the neatest thing because it happened so quick.”

Back then, he said he had never heard of great white’s being in the Gulf, but now it seems more common, thought still neat.

Now, the only question is, he said, “what’s next?”