Shark sightings near Port Canaveral stir up talk of great whites

Great Whites off Florida coast? Floridatoday

Fishermen always like to share fish tales. The past few weeks, some have been telling a great white one.Perched atop the 36-foot "Relentless," a charter boat out of Port Canaveral, Derek Redwine saw a dark shape come into view while scanning the green waters for fish seven miles off Cocoa Beach.

While searching for cobia last Sunday -- a large fish that spends much of its time swimming alongside manta rays -- Redwine hollered for Capt. Scott Bussen to slow down. "I thought I saw a ray with a big cobia swimming above it," said the Merritt Island artist who owns BoldWater graphic design. "As we got closer, a shark came into focus."

A big shark. So big, in fact, that what Redwine thought was a fish hovering above a manta was actually the long shadow cast on the approximate 15-foot great white shark by its own dorsal fin, he said. "The girth was unbelievable to me," Redwine said.
Captain Bussen slowed the Relentless to a halt above the slow-moving shark for a better look. The fish apparently had the same idea. "He hung around for a good 15 minutes, just slowly circling us," said Redwine. "He was really peaceful and docile."