Shark escape: Bluffton spear fisherman goes nose-to-nose with predator

As an experienced spear fisherman and scuba diver, Erik Anderson of Bluffton is used to being around sharks — and not being afraid of them.

“I don’t feel like they’re a real threat to me,” said the 29-year-old from Colorado.

Sharks, for the most part, are “just trying to make a living,” Anderson, a former Marine, said Monday while rocking up and down on the ramp over the May River at Alljoy Boat Landing in Bluffton. “They’re trying to find something to eat. They don’t want humans.”

Or so he hopes.

On June 10, when he encountered a 6-foot shark while spear fishing for cobia about 20 miles off Hilton Head Island, that hope got tested.

“It was just too worked up from all the chum in the water” from around 20 other boats in the same area, and “it really didn’t like me being in there with him,” said Anderson, who posted video of the encounter to his YouTube account, SC Spearo.

“Whenever he came at me the first time — and I was just nice and relaxed, but I had my spear gun up — he actually bumped into my spear gun, and even though it happened really quickly, I could feel the force of the shark pushing me backwards through the water. And that really surprised me.”

But it didn’t scare him.

At least not yet.

After the shark swam away and Anderson laughed it off, back the predator came.

“I saw him coming, so I had my spear gun up again, and then he bit the end of my spear gun,” Anderson said. “And for me, I was just like, ‘OK, that’s close enough. I think I’ll call that good and get out of the water.’ ”

“So I swam back, and as soon as I got out of the water, he was right there at my feet circling me by the boat.”

Just trying to make a living.

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This story was originally published June 28, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Shark escape: Bluffton spear fisherman goes nose-to-nose with predator."