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A new documentary looks at the presence of great white sharks on the Gulf Coast.
There are plenty of sharks in the waters along the Texas coast, but until recently, the idea that a great white shark would be seen in Texas was just rumors and hearsay.
Chester Moore is a wildlife journalist, and for years he's chased stories about the elusive shark. His new documentary on the subject is called Gulf Great White Sharks: Return of An Icon.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Clayton: Now, I know that you have kept your eye on this for a long time, but when did you first hear reports of great white sharks on the Texas coast?
Moore: Well, if you look at the old literature, there were reports dating back to the 1950s, but nothing in a recent era. And in 2005, a friend of mine who was a young charter captain called me from a satellite phone off the coast of Sabine Pass, looking at a great white shark as he's talking to me. And it blew his mind, and [he] began a kind of a pursuit of this topic that goes on to today to the point where I released a documentary about it.
Clayton: And when people say they have seen a great white shark off the coast of Texas, usually people would make fun of them, right?
Moore: Yeah, back then it was like a taboo topic. I got a little bit of heat about writing about it, even though I had some evidence. But when a group called OCERCH started putting satellite tags on great whites in the southern Atlantic and Northern Atlantic, and they sort of pop up off the coast of Florida on the Gulf side, people were like, "whoa."
And then, last year, everything changed when a shark named LeeBeth, a 14-foot great white tagged by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, and a guy named Captain Chip Michalove, off the coast of South Carolina [it] showed up 100 yards from the beach at South Padre Island and then went all the way up the Texas coast and hung out around the oil rigs where my friend saw one 20 years ago. It changed the whole paradigm of looking at [great white sharks] in Texas waters.
Clayton: From what you learned making this documentary, do you feel like great whites may be a common sight in the Gulf at some point?
Moore: I don't think they'll ever be common here, but because the numbers are increasing overall, we're going to start seeing great whites where it's not like an aberration, where people are kind of used to them being in the media.
Clayton: I know you’re a big fan of great white sharks. Tell us why it matters that great whites are returning to the Gulf.
Moore: It's a great conservation story. When the media covers the Gulf, it's because of an oil spill or a hurricane, typically. Now we're having a chance to talk about an animal that was decreased by 80%. And then when protections went in '97, these apex predators rose up in numbers to the point now where they're returning to their old stomping grounds. And the reason it's important is that it's a great symbol for the Gulf, and [I] hope that we can do great things for wildlife.
It's a wonderful body of water — even its name is controversial these days.
And the fact that this is an apex predator, and it's important to have a whole food chain from the apex down to the little guys.
Clayton: For those out there who are interested in sharks and want to see more about what you're working on, where do they go?
Moore: Then go to Gulfgreatwhites.com, and they could also watch the new documentary, Gulf Great White Sharks: Return of An Icon. There's a page for it there on the website, and it has my buddy telling his story. We got the top shark scientists in the world. They're talking about great whites on not only just the Gulf Coast but [specifically] the Texas coast.
