Nature
PUBLISHED
A fisherman managed to fend off a feisty hammerhead shark while kayaking near Gaviota State Beach on Saturday. The shark’s curiosity could not be assuaged, even when pummeled with the man’s paddle.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.So who is the man the shark was so intrigued by? Mark McCracken is a 33-year-old construction worker from Santa Maria, California.
"It hit the back of my kayak twice and I turned around to see it," McCracken told NBC News. "I couldn't tell if he was biting [the kayak] or if he was head-butting it but soon as I saw it I just started going at him with the paddle."
Whatever the shark’s intent, McCracken managed to catch the whole thing on camera. In the video, the shark’s silver fin circles the lone kayaker, before coming in for a closer look. Each time, the hammerhead is deflected by a well-aimed blow from McCracken’s paddle.
Check out the video below.
