Kayak Shark Attack Leaves California Fishermen On Edge

Joey Nocchi was enjoying the ocean off of the coast of Cambria, California, when he had a shocking encounter with a great white shark. Nocchi said that he was kayaking along the coast when the shark took a bite out of his boat. Nocchi was forced to abandon ship but was luckily pulled from the water unharmed.

The McClatchy DC reports that Nocchi was out fishing with his buddies James Byon and Matt Kerschke. Nocchi said:

“We’d just about limited out on rock cod, and Matt caught two halibut… We were cruising along together and talking (when) I got hit from underneath and started coming up out of the water. My buddies said I came out of the water 4 to 5 feet — it flipped me over the side. The shark rolled the whole kayak over, rolled me out of it, and he went over the top of it. He swam across me — his tail touched me.”

Nocchi said that he swam back to the capsized kayak and scanned the water for the shark. His friends assured him that the shark had made a mistake and told him that he needed to flip the kayak back over and start paddling.

Kershke, who claims that the great white was about 14 feet long, told his friend:

“The shark knows it made a mistake. You’ll have to get off, turn the kayak over, and get back in. I’m going to go get the paddle, and I want you in the kayak when I get back.”

Nocchi said that he was able to get back in the kayak and paddled as quickly as he could to shore. The California man said that getting the boat back to shore was tough since the kayak had a hole in it from the shark bite.

Nocchi escaped the attack without any injuries but admitted that he was a little shaken up from the incident. He said: “I’ll be bass fishing for a while… but probably from the shore.”

Yahoo reports that shark attacks are relatively rare in California. There have been 104 confirmed attacks (only 9 fatal) between 1926 and 2011.