Latest news with #TaylorBankston
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What do you do when 14-foot white shark is 'checking' you out in Florida? Shoot video, photos
There's nothing like an encounter with a 14-foot-long white shark to get the heart pumping. Not to mention the stories you'll bring home from your Florida vacation. That's what happened when a Kentucky family headed out for a fishing trip from Florida's Panhandle. Capt. Taylor Bankston took a group of anglers from Kentucky — a mother, dad and two daughters — out on his 26-foot boat, Get the Gaff, on April 10. ➤ 'Giant teeth and a giant eyeball.' Photos show Florida boater's great white shark encounter While fishing about nine miles from Destin in the Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico, "I looked up ... what I thought I saw in the water was a submarine, and I was waiting next for the periscope to pop out of the water,' Bankston said. 'But it never did ... and then the submarine turned into something that had giant teeth and a giant eyeball,' he said. 'I immediately knew I had never seen a fish in the water that big. It had to be a great white,' Bankston said. 'It was just circling us and checking us out. It was as if we were viewing a dinosaur,' he said. Bankston said the shark circled his boat about 20 minutes, mouthing the back of the boat at one time "to see what we were ... and realized that we weren't anything eatable." After the shark circled for about 20 minutes, it just disappeared. ➤ More photos, videos posted by Taylor Bankston on Facebook 'Then five minutes later we saw a dorsal fin about 100 yards away from us going across the surface slow as all get out ... like the movie 'Jaws.' That was her when she swam away,' Bankston said. Bankston estimated the shark was about 14 feet long, with a dorsal fin about 2 ½ feet tall. He estimated it to be between 1,100 and 1,400 pounds. 'The dorsal fin looked like the fin on 'Jaws,' " he said. "Jaws 2" was filmed in the Destin area. 'First thing I thought was 'captain we're going to need a bigger boat,'' Bankston said. To put it in perspective, Bankston's boat was 26 feet long, making the shark just over half the length of the boat. 'If I would have been hooked up to a heart monitor, there would have been some peaking and beeping," Bankston said. Bankston said the anglers onboard were ecstatic. 'Oh my gosh, it made their vacation. It was a great day." Destin is located about 40 miles east of Pensacola or 50 miles west of Panama City. It's about 130 miles west of Tallahassee. White sharks love to visit Florida during the winter months. OCEARCH, which describes itself as a "data-centric organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean while open sourcing our research and explorations," regularly tags and tracks sharks, both white and tiger sharks. In January 2025, scientists tagged a 13-foot 9-inch shark, nicknamed "Contender," near the Florida-Georgia border. The male shark was estimated to weigh more than 1,300 pounds. ➤ 2 great white sharks, one massive at 1,653 pounds, ping off Florida east coast. Here's where After being tagged, Contender headed farther south, exploring the waters as far south as Indian River County before turning to head north. His last "ping," when a transponder attached to his dorsal fin sent a signal to a satellite, was Tuesday, April 15, off the coast of North Carolina. Three other sharks — two white and one tiger — tagged by Ocearch have pinged off Florida this week, including one this morning: Dold: Male white shark, 761 pounds, 11 feet 2 inches long. Pinged 10:45 a.m. April 16 in the Gulf west of Sarasota. Morada: Female tiger shark, 761 pounds, 11 feet 2 inches long. Pinged 7:34 a.m. April 15 in the Atlantic southeast of Miami. Breton: Male white shark, 1,437 pounds, 13 feet 3 inches long. Pinged 8:54 p.m. April 12 in the Atlantic east of Jacksonville. Florida is known as the shark bite capital of the world. And Volusia County leads the state in the number of unprovoked attacks, according to the International Shark Attack File. Information provided by Dr. Gavin Naylor, director of Florida Program for Shark Research and curator of Florida Museum of Natural History. ➤ Curious about Florida sharks? We asked an expert about things you should know Some large sharks can swim in waters that are 1 or 2 feet deep. There were 351 unprovoked shark attacks in Volusia County from 1882 to 2023. Bull sharks are tolerant of fresh water and can be found in estuaries and rivers. Dawn and dusk are the worst times to be in the water but bites are possible any time of day. Sharks follow baitfish so watch out for them close to shore especially in the summer. Black-tips and Atlantic sharp-nose are the most common encountered by Florida swimmers. The most aggressive shark in Florida waters is considered to be bull sharks. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Great white shark circles, bites boat fishing off Destin, Florida
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Great white shark drawing? Massive 'artist' white shark again pings off Florida coast
A massive, 1,400-pound white shark, known for making a great white shark "drawing," pinged off the Florida coast Saturday. Breton, a 13-foot adult male, was far off the Jacksonville Beach coast when trackers received a ping of his location at 8:54 p.m. Breton was tagged in 2020 by the research group OCEARCH during an expedition in Nova Scotia. His pings are tracked when the satellite tag attached to his dorsal fin moves above water long enough to send location information. Breton is a repeat visitor to Florida. His tracker shows he's visited here the past four winters as many snowbirds do: enjoying the warm waters and plentiful food sources around the Sunshine State. And on the OCEARCH shark tracker map, Breton's pings reveal something amazing. He spent a little over two years making a "self-portrait." His pings between September 2020 and January 2022 connect to show what appears to be the outline of a huge shark, with the tail in Nova Scotia, the body along the east coast and head pointed at Florida's east coast. "You can track Breton, the white shark that made this self-portrait on the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker," the research group posted on X. Breton was the first shark tagged during OCEARCH's 2020 expedition in Nova Scotia, the group reported. At that time the adult shark was 13-foot, 3-inches long and weighed in at a whopping 1,437 pounds. Breton was named by SeaWorld, an OCEARCH partner, for the people of Cape Breton where he was tagged. Breton has traveled 46,994 miles since he was tagged, his tracker page notes. A fishing charter off Destin, Florida, encountered a 14-foot great white shark on April 10. The shark circled the boat for 20 minutes, even mouthing the back of the vessel before swimming away. 'We were on a regular fishing trip, and I looked up ... what I thought I saw in the water was a submarine, and I was waiting next for the periscope to pop out of the water,' charter boat captain Taylor Bankston said. 'But it never did ... and then the submarine turned into something that had giant teeth and a giant eyeball,' he said. Great white sharks are opportunistic and enjoy a diverse diet of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammals, NOAA Fisheries reported. Juvenile white sharks mostly eat bottom fish, smaller sharks, rays, schooling fish and squid, while larger great white sharks also eat seals and sea lions and are known to feed on whale carcasses. While great white sharks are often characterized as apex predators, meaning they top the food chain in their environment, it is not always the case. In environments where orcas, also known as killer whales, are present, they top the food chain and have been known to hunt great white sharks for their nutrient-rich livers. For example, an Orca was observed off the South African coast hunting and killing an 8-foot great white shark, eventually eviscerating it and carrying a portion of the shark's liver in its mouth. Great white sharks have an endless supply of teeth. Great white sharks have about 50 exposed teeth, with five to six rows of teeth constantly developing behind them, ready to replace any that wear down or fall out. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Great white shark makes shark 'drawing,' pings off Jacksonville Beach
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
'Thought I saw a submarine': Florida charter boat has close encounter with great white shark
What was already a good fishing day with anglers catching vermillion snapper and triggerfish soon turned into a great day – a great white shark day. Destin's Capt. Taylor Bankston and his group of anglers from Kentucky were out on a fishing trip aboard his 26-foot center console charter boat, Get the Gaff, on April 10 when they got a huge surprise. 'We were on a regular fishing trip, and I looked up ... what I thought I saw in the water was a submarine, and I was waiting next for the periscope to pop out of the water,' Bankston said. 'But it never did ... and then the submarine turned into something that had giant teeth and a giant eyeball,' he said. More great white sharks in Florida: Shark cam captures Florida close encounters in nurse shark-great white shark 'photobomb' Bankston said it swam past the boat. 'I immediately knew I had never seen a fish in the water that big. It had to be a great white,' Bankston said. Bankston, who operates his boat out of AJ's on Destin harbor, had four customers aboard the boat from Kentucky, a mom and dad and two daughters. He said the anglers were ecstatic. 'Oh my gosh, it made their vacation,' Bankston said. Bankston explained that he had the motors off and was using an i-Pilot trolling motor to hold them over a spot. They were fishing about nine miles out of Destin, Florida. 'We were just sitting there over the reef catching fish, and she popped up and circled us for 20 minutes,' he said. At one point, the shark came up and 'mouthed the back of the boat, bit it, to see what we were ... and realized that we weren't anything eatable, and then kept going,' Bankston said. The shark continued to circle the boat for about another 10 minutes. 'It was just circling us and checking us out,' Bankston said. Early on, Bankston had gone up in the tower of his boat to get a good look, photos and video. He said when everybody on the boat walked over to one side, it would lean a bit. 'I was leaning over the top of the great white ... my heart was pumping,' he said. After the shark circled for about 20 minutes, it just disappeared. 'Then five minutes later we saw a dorsal fin about 100 yards away from us going across the surface slow as all get out ... like the movie Jaws. That was her when she swam away,' Bankston said. The dorsal fin on the great white was about 2 ½ feet tall. 'Literally the dorsal fin looked like the fin on Jaws,' he said, making mention that the movie "Jaws 2" was filmed in the Destin area. 'You don't think that theme song – dun, dun, dun – was going through my head when I saw that thing,' Bankston said. 'First thing I thought was 'captain we're going to need a bigger boat,'' Bankston said. Bankston said the great white was about 14-feet long and estimated it to be between 1,100 and 1,400 pounds. 'It's the biggest fish I've ever seen,' he said. 'We were all baffled. It was as if we were viewing a dinosaur,' he said. Although it was huge, Bankston said they were never really scared. 'I knew I was in a good boat,' he said. 'And I knew we couldn't short clean the boat today. More: 'Definitely not geared up for that': Destin boat hooks 20-foot great white shark 'You respect the piece of equipment that kept you separate and safe,' Bankston said. However, he did admit, 'If I would have been hooked up to a heart monitor, there would have been some peaking and beeping. 'We weren't down in the hull crunched up, but we were highly alert and lots of adrenalin flowing,' he said. After the shark left, they went back to fishing and caught plenty of mingo. "The mingo had no idea there was a 1,400-pound shark swimming above their heads ... and they were still chewing like crazy,' Bankston said. 'It was a great day." This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Great white shark circles Florida fishing charter boat
