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Great White Shark Stories Stories surrounding Great Whites are always fascinating and shocking.... Stories from Matt... The unfortunate honeymoon couple, Byron Bay, Australia. Around 3 years ago I was in Byron Bay in Australia on a surfing trip. Whilst sitting on my board out back (behind the waves and out of my depth) I was chatting to my surf instructor. I asked her if there are any Great White Sharks in the Byron Bay area. She said (in her very broad Aussie accent) ' Shit yeh!! - loads of the buggers '. She told me about a honeymoon couple that had been diving about a mile out at a dive site called Julian Rocks. A Great White Shark was spotted by the man cruising nearby. As he went to warn his wife that they had better get out of there the shark decided to come and have a closer look at them. The man swam in front of his wife to shield her but the shark took a massive bite out of him, which killed him. I thought my surf instructor was trying to scare me as I was out of my depth in the Australian (shark infested ocean) but I soon decided enough was enough and paddled back to the beach anyway, of course not worrying about what she had just told me!!?. Since then I while I travelled around Australia I heard the story about about the honeymoon couple 4 times off various people. So it probably was true!. I have been back to Byron Bay and been out into the waves on a surf board, but the thought of what may have been lurking near me was always on the back of my mind. Dolphins to the rescue, Auckland, New Zealand. When I lived over in New Zealand I heard about a amazing story involving a very close call with a Great White Shark, known as White Pointer in New Zealand. A man was training a group of children to swim in the ocean in the North Island near Auckland, New Zealand off Ocean Beach. He said he saw an enormous grey shape about 10 metres in front of them, drifting closer when he realised it was a Great White. Before the man could think a pod of Common Dolphins, which he had seen earlier, appeared and herded the children and the man together like sheep. The children were very scared at this point because the dolphins were being rough and wouldn't let any of them break lose from the group. The Shark was disturbed and warned off by two of the larger dolphins. It is extremely likely that those dolphins saved at least one of their lives. The man didn't tell the children about the Great White until later when they were safely back on the beach. He also alerted the coastguard and local authorities about the Great White. This story was all over the papers in New Zealand. The dolphins helped out in this case, but of course not all people would be that lucky. The Indianapolis true story. As told by Quint in Jaws... Hooper: You were on the Indianapolis? Brody: What happened? Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.