It was a dramatic weekend for one California kayaker, probably more dramatic than he would have liked.
A Paso Robles fisherman escaped a great white shark attack on Saturday, although his kayak didn’t.
Joey Nocchi, 30, had his kayak upended and was bitten by a great white shark. Nocchi and friends James Byon and Matt Kerschke were fishing for rockfish at 1:30 p.m. local time on Saturday near Leffingwell Landing off Moonstone Beach.
“We’d just about limited out on rock cod, and Matt caught two halibut,” Nocchi said. We were cruising along together and talking.”
He was reaching for his knife 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.”
His friends guessed that the shark was 12 feet to 14 feet long.
Nocchi’s pals told him “the shark came all the way out of the water, jaws open, extra eyelids closed like they do when they’re making a kill strike.
“I swam back as fast as I could and got back on the back of the kayak. I didn’t even think to turn it back over.”
Kershke told him, “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, “I did, and I got back to shore as fast as I could, even though the kayak was taking on a bunch of water from the bite. The bite looks to be around 20 inches long, more than 22 inches wide.”
Nocchi said he was glad he didn’t fish alone, and added he’d probably stay out of the ocean for a while thanks to the kayak shark attack.
“I’ll be bass fishing for a while, probably from the shore.”
Signs have now been posted along Moonstone Beach warning beach goers about the shark attack.
Related articles
- Shark attacks kayaker off Cambria coast (abclocal.go.com)
- Yikes! ‘Great white’ shark attacks fisherman’s kayak (usnews.msnbc.msn.com)
- Kayaker says he survived great white shark attack off Calif. coast (cbsnews.com)
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