DUNEDIN, Fla. — It wasn’t a dolphin that stole the show on a Saturday morning dolphin cruise off Honeymoon Island. Instead, it was a roughly 10-foot shark.
Charter captain Jordan Sandlin, owner of ClearWake Watersports, believes the visitor was a juvenile great white.
WATCH: Shark steals the show off Honeymoon Island in once-in-a-lifetime sighting
Sandlin spotted the shark after noticing a pod of dolphins acting strangely.
“They were acting really funny,” he said. “I saw commotion in the water, and then, all of a sudden, it stopped, and the dolphins started to move away.”
Moments later, the shark’s dorsal fin broke the surface.
“We pulled right up on it, and it was every bit of at least 9-10 foot,” Sandlin said.
WATCH: Video from Nick Spiridis
Sandlin’s friend and fellow charter boat captain, Nick Spiridis, was also in the area and also got a chance to see the shark. Both are convinced the creature was a great white shark, which is rarely seen in Florida waters.
“I’ll never forget it. And I’ll have something to tell my grandkids and everybody about it,” said Spiridis, owner of Reel Runner Gulf Adventures. “The thing got within like inches of my boat. That’s how close he was.”
Both captains were running dolphin tours at the time. Their passengers were left in awe.
“I told my group that what you just saw was a needle in a haystack times a hundred,” said Sandlin. “I’m a Shark Week fanatic, so it was an experience that I will never forget.”
Eric Hovland, an animal care specialist and the “Shark Guy” for The Florida Aquarium, reviewed videos and pictures of the sighting. He said the shark could be either a juvenile great white or a shortfin mako, which can look similar from above the water.
“Either one of those sharks would be, you know, such a rare treat to see in our waters out near Honeymoon Island,” he said.
While it’s not unheard of for juvenile great whites to venture near Florida’s coast, larger great whites usually stick to deeper waters with bigger prey.
According to OCEARCH, a nonprofit that conducts shark research and tracks sharks globally, six tracked great white sharks have pinged in the deep waters off Florida over the past month.
Hovland says beach-goers should not be alarmed by the sighting. He said, statistically speaking, the most dangerous part of going to the beach is the drive.
While at the beach, he says common sense is key: swim near others, avoid swimming at dawn or dusk, and don’t venture too far from shore.
Meanwhile, Sandlin, Spiridis, and their clients are still buzzing about the sighting.
“I’ll never forget it,” said Spiridis. “And I’ll have something to tell my grandkids and everybody.”
Beyond the thrill, it’s also a reminder of how rare and remarkable the animals are.
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), both great white and shortfin mako sharks are considered threatened. Great whites are listed as vulnerable, and shortfin makos are listed as endangered.
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