Last week’s great white shark sighting off Haleiwa is getting national attention and so is the videographer behind the images.
Jimmy Hall has become a wanted man since sharing his story with us last Friday, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Hall says this incredible encounter is providing him with an incredible opportunity to educate.
Jimmy hall’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing since his chance meeting with this great white shark off Haleiwa during one of his shark diving tours.
“I’m just really amazed at all of the interest from everywhere right now. It’s really kind of blown my mind,” says Hall.
Great white sightings are extremely rare in Hawaii — about a half dozen in the last eight years — but this one was special. It was an estimated 20 feet long.
“Even for places that you do see a lot of great white sharks this one is of the extra large variety, and it is kind of rare that you get that kind of conditions that we had and that kind of behavior where you can safely go and swim with a great white shark,” says Hall.
The requests for interviews from national radio and television talk shows have poured in. Tuesday he was in our studio doing a satellite interview with Inside Edition.
“I’m really happy right now that there’s so much attention to this sighting and this encounter. Normally when sharks are in the news like this it’s because they’ve bitten someone or someone has gone and killed an enormous one and has it hanging from a crane and is posing with it like a big trophy,” says Hall.
“Basically, I’m just trying to use this as a chance for sharks to be in the news in a positive way. Normally in the news we have someone got bit or someone almost got bit or got bumped, anything. The tiniest little nip from a shark is headline news. Very rarely is it, ‘hey, wow, look this is a really magnificent animal.'”
Still, he knows there will be those who will criticize his actions and his message.
“Look, here’s what people like to think is the most dangerous animal in the sea and you just saw me swimming around with it, so obviously they’re not mindless man-eating fish that are just going to bite everything that swims by,” says Hall.
“They think I’m reckless and I’ll just do anything. I’m 39 years old and I’ve been living my life this way the whole time, so if that were true I would not have live this long, so I must be paying a little bit of attention to something. I can’t think of anything that would top this, but I hope there is. Maybe I’ll see two sharks next time. I don’t know.”
Hall admits he was hesitant to come forward with the video because of concerns the media would somehow sensationalize the story — he’s pleased he did.
Source: Ron Mizutani, Khon News
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