Bradenton-area diver swims with great white sharks feeding on dead whale in Sarasota
Since he was a kid John Pendergrast has had a fascination with the ocean and its apex inhabitants.
“I was a big Jacques Cousteau fan growing up,” said Pendergrast, who spends most of his free time offshore spearfishing in the Gulf of Mexico. “I’ve had a bucket list of things to do and swimming with great whites was always one of them since I was a kid.”
A week ago Pendergrast was on vacation in Hawaii, where he was able to cross another item off his bucket list, swimming with giant manta rays. As his family began their return home to Florida, he had started hearing crazy stories through the outdoors community. After authorities dragged the beached and deceased sperm whale offshore of Sarasota, it became an all-you-can-eat floating buffet for large and rare sharks.
“I caught wind of the sharks when we were flying back home Sunday. I got major FOMO from it. At 6 p.m. Sunday, I did some math to see if we could figure out where it drifted to and decided to head out Monday.
“We found it drifting in the area we thought it would be, in about 58 feet of water between Sarasota and Bradenton,” Pendergrast explained.
When they found the whale, it was a bit overcast. They observed the sharks swimming around, counting multiple great whites and a few big tiger sharks as well. Taking note of their behavior, Pendergrast got the itch to get into the water to cross another item off his bucket list.
“We watched them long enough to take note of their behavior. They would come up to it, take a few bites, eat it for 30 seconds to a few minutes, then leave the carcass and circle around on autopilot for 30 to 45 minutes. When we were comfortable, we hopped in and got some pictures and videos of them, one of those things you’ll never forget!”
Free swimming with the great white sharks didn’t make Pendergrast that nervous as they displayed non-aggressive behavior. He counted six different white sharks from about nine feet up to about 13 feet. It was the tiger sharks that he kept an eye on.
“The big tiger shark was probably 14 or 15 feet. By far, the biggest tiger I’ve ever seen. We’ve had increasingly more run-ins with sharks while diving and tigers are some of the most aggressive. I’ve seen them turn a 100-pound black grouper into a 10-pound morsel. The white sharks would swim up to us close enough to touch them then circle around. But when the tigers showed up, we got out of the water.”
Toward the end of the day, the carcass had floated shallower, to around 38 feet of water. Normally at the end of a trip, Pendergrast is taking home a cooler full of fish, but this time he had a camera full of pictures and a brain full of memories.
“I kind of nerd out on this stuff,” said Pendergrast. “To see white sharks in our own backyard in places we normally fish and dive is extra special.”
