Hawaii Diver Fearlessly Swims With Largest Shark On Record

HALEIWA, HI — Great white sharks get a bum rap. They’re often portrayed as killers and “don’t have a cute, cuddly appearance,” said a researcher who came face to face with 20-foot long, 8-foot wide shark, one of the largest ever recorded, while diving off the coast of Oahu.

Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher and conservationist, encountered the giant fish Tuesday near the carcass of a dead sperm whale that has been the subject of some interest by humans and sharks alike, leading the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources to warn swimmers and boaters to stay away from it lest a shark mistake them for food.

Ramsey, though, wasn’t frightened. Instead, she thinks sharks should be frightened of humans.

“It fills my heart with joy and takes my breath away,” Ramsey told NBC’s Today show on Friday. “Truthfully, they swim past surfers, swimmers and divers all day every day, and it’s so rare they ever make a mistake. It’s less than 10 human fatalities globally annually … yet people kill 70 to 100 million sharks every year.”

Ramsey’s encounter with the shark was documented and shared on social media by her fiancé and business partner Juan Oliphant. They hope their encounter will be helpful in a push for legislation that would protect sharks in Hawaii.

“I realize moments like this are increasingly rare because sharks are being wiped out,” Ramsey told the “Today” show. “It’s just so sad that so many people around the world would think ‘monster’ and want to kill her.”

The shark could be the celebrated Deep Blue, the largest great white shark ever recorded. Deep Blue has been reported swimming around Guadalupe Island off Mexico, but great white shark sightings are rare in the Hawaiian islands because the water is so warm

“She looks the part right now,” Oliphant told The Associated Press of speculation the shark is Deep Blue. “Maybe even more exciting that there is another massive, you know, super-size great white shark out there. Because their populations are so dwindling.”

Ramsey and Oliphant, who operate Oahu-based One Ocean Diving and Research, took their dive boat out Tuesday to monitor the tiger sharks feeding off the dead sperm whale, which had been towed about 15 miles offshore from Sand Island by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

“We saw a few tigers and then she came up and all the other sharks split, and she started brushing up against the boat,” Ramsey told the Honolulu Star Advertiser. “She was just this big beautiful gentle giant wanting to use our boat as a scratching post. We went out at sunrise, and she stayed with us pretty much throughout the day.”

She hopes the stunning images of her swimming next to the shark will convince people that the predators should be protected, not feared. To be clear, though, she doesn’t advise the general public to recklessly dive into the water with the sharks, especially around a food source like a rotting whale carcass.

Ramsey said extensive training and time spent studying shark behavior has kept her team and customers safe. She teaches people about how to act and, more important, not act when they encounter a shark in the water.

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She and Oliphant see their close encounter provides a platform as a way to educate the public about sharks and give Hawaii legislators the nudge to protect them. Great white sharks, which generally prefer the colder Pacific coast where they feed on sea lions and elephant seals, are listed as a vulnerable species in Hawaii. Great white sharks also aren’t federally protected.

"There's not a lot of sympathy for sharks because of the way they're portrayed in media and they don't have the cute, cuddly appearance," Ramsey told The AP. "You can't hate them for being predators. We need them for healthy marine ecosystems."

Shark bites are uncommon and “the idea that they see people as a food source, that is rubbish and that needs to go away because really that's ultimately leading to the demise of these animals," Oliphant added in the AP interview.

The shark has impressively survived a “gauntlet of human death traps,” Ramsey told The AP.

"I don't know how old she is," she said. "But for her to survive through so many longline fisheries and, you know, gill nets and team nets and fishermen who might just kill her because they think that she is a monster ... it's very special."

And, Ramsey told the Star Advertiser, the shark may be pregnant because her body is “shockingly wide.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lead photo: Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher and advocate, swims with a large great white shark off the shore of Oahu. (Juan Oliphant via AP)