By Pete Thomas
Keith Poe spends much of his time offshore, trying to lure large sharks close enough to bait and tag for science.
What does the Southern California fisherman do with smaller sharks attracted by his chumming technique?
The accompanying footage shows Poe gently pulling a free-swimming mako shark by its dorsal fin and stroking its back as casually as one might stroke the back of a family pet.
“Come on, girl. Come here,” Poe says, reaching toward the 6-foot shark. “We’re gonna get you some pets. Come on, come on. Yeah, get you some pets.”
It’s a definite don’t-try-this-at-home moment, not advisable for anyone without vast experience in working with sharks.
Poe, who tags sharks for the Marine Conservation Science Institute, has caught an estimated 5,000 sharks and understands their behavior as well as anyone.
He said he was chumming in the San Pedro Channel off Los Angeles when the small mako shark appeared.
“She was just hanging out,” he said. “I was hand-feeding her and petting her for several hours while waiting for an adult shark to show up. I never [bait] them unless they’re mature females 9 feet and up.”
He said the shark was never aggressive, and that he shared the video because mako sharks “are always thought of as such vicious animals, and it’s just not true.
“They come up to the boat all excited ready to kill something because that's necessary to eat usually.
But after a while they calm down and you get to know their real personality.”
One of the largest mako sharks Poe has tagged is named Cinderella. Her movements can now be tracked via the MCSI’s Expedition White Shark app.
“When I tagged Cinderella, an 11-foot, 4-inch mako, I spent a long time with her, feeding her before I caught her,” Poe said. “It’s part of an effort to reduce capture shock.
“As a result, after I caught her, and tagged and released her, she stayed at the boat for an hour-and-a-half eating out of my hand.”
Poe, who recently had an 18- to 20-foot great white shark “hang out with me for five hours,” said he typically sends most of the sharks he tags to freedom with a stroke or pat to the head or back.
Call it a perk.
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