Brett Barley found himself surrounded by sharks about 300 yards off Cape Point, North Carolina, on Monday after heading back into the same waters where he had just hooked one by accident. The professional surfer and fisherman was riding his watercraft and trying to catch black fin tuna and red drum when the encounter unfolded.
Video Barley shared shows the sharks feeding on baitfish as they closed in around him. Barley believed they were spinner sharks and said he stayed calm and drove through the area to get out. At one point, he said, if you see a dozen sharks above the surface, there are probably far more below the water.
The scene came after Barley accidentally caught a shark, only for it to chew through the line and break free. He later returned to the same area and ran into the school again. Last year, a fisherman caught and released a 13-foot great white shark off the shores of Frisco, a reminder that large sharks regularly move through these coastal waters.
North Carolina rules make clear that recreational fishermen must release any shark captured without removing it from the water and in a way that maximizes its survival. Commercial fishermen can keep some types of sharks in season. Spinner sharks, the species Barley believed he saw, are known to form schools and migrate along the Atlantic coast from Florida to North Carolina, often breaking the surface in a spinning motion as they chase prey.
For Barley, the day was a close call that ended as it began, with the water, the baitfish and the sharks all moving in the same direction. The difference was that by the time he left, he had seen enough to know that what showed above the surface was only part of the picture.