A group of people aboard a fishing charter off the coast of New Zealand got a little more than they were expecting recently when a sizeable mako shark launched itself onto the bow of the boat.
Skipper Ryan Churches was with a group of five customers near the Aldermen Islands when the hair-raising incident occurred. The group were on the hunt for kingfish when a shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) took the bait. “We were fighting it normally and it was jumping around,” Churches told the New Zealand Herald. “I told the customers ‘if it jumps in the boat get out of the way’. It just so happened that about 30 seconds later it jumped on the top of the boat. It was crazy.”
The shark – estimated to weigh around 150 kilograms – flailed around on the bow of the boat for around two minutes before finding its way back to the safety of the water. This is the first time Churches has to deal with a shark on his boat and the veteran skipper who runs a fishing charter business called Churchys Charter NZ, was relieved he did not have to intervene. “[The shark] got away safe. There’s nothing much we could do. We can’t go up the front to go near it because they go absolutely bonkers.”
Adult mako sharks average around ten feet (three metres) in length, and the heaviest one ever recorded weighed in at an impressive 1,300 pounds (590kg). They are also the speedsters of the shark world, capable of accelerating to about 30 miles (about 50 km) per hour. All that girth and streamlined speed equates to quite a bit of raw power, useful for leaping out of the water (and occasionally onto boats).
