Matt Wells was shocked to see a great white shark following his kayak for a long, long time. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
On February 9, a kayak fisherman named Matt Wells had a pretty terrifying encounter with a great white shark. He recently sat down with Today to break down what, exactly, was going through his head when a shark followed him for eight minutes.
As an avid fisherman who runs a YouTube channel called Nomadic Kayak Fishing, Wells is no stranger to seeing wildlife. New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, where the encounter took place, is especially vibrant when it comes to creatures of the deep — like great white sharks.
Wells was angling for yellowtail kingfish, sometimes known as yellowtail amberjack, depending on where you live, when the shark took an interest in him. Great whites are curious animals, not the mindless machines hellbent on death they’re often portrayed as. They are, however, a large and powerful creature that can injure or kill a person with a test bite. Wells knew that, but he maintained his composure for nearly eight minutes as he paddled over two miles to safety.
Wells is no stranger to fishing and he knew what he was getting himself into. “This particular area is known to have a lot of really big fish,” he continued. “…I had a live bait out behind the kayak, sort of trolling reasonably close to the shore along the rocky coastline. It was very quiet all day, and I finally saw a bit of a swirl and I thought, ‘oh sweet, there’s a kingfish feeding behind me.’”
Within seconds, however, it became apparent that it was not a kingfish but something much, much larger. “The swirl grew in size,” he explained, “and next thing you know, the shark sort of emerged out of the blue and swam right up to me.”
Wells wasn’t entirely unfazed, despite how calm as he appeared in his footage. “I was a bit in shock,” he continued. “It was a whole lot of emotions hitting at once. I was terrified, shocked, excited, and just sort of in awe of the size of the animal I’d just seen.”
Wells doesn’t think the shark was hunting him, which is very likely the case. Instead, it was probably just curious to see if it should be hunting him. Sharks like to inspect possible prey from behind.
“To be quite honest, I don’t think it was hunting me,” he told the news anchors. “Yes, they can attack you, but they’re a curious animal more than anything. Really, I think he was just giving me a fright and having a bit of fun.”
Cooler heads did prevail, though, and Wells isn’t dwelling on the experience. “I got over it pretty quickly,” he told Today. “It’s in the past now and we’re back out there fishing again.”
