Sharks, sharks, and more sharks! Boaters on Robinson Island circled by hammerheads
By Ashlyn Mitchell
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ORANGE BEACH, Alabama (WALA) — Boaters and swimmers on Robinson Island got some surprise visitors in the water Saturday.
Like many, Paul Hubble and his family took to the water Saturday for a day in the sun at Robinson Island.
Out of all the visitors they thought they’d encounter, sharks were the last on their radar.
“All of a sudden we started hearing people say shark, shark and then everybody started getting on the boat. People thought they were fixing to get eaten alive or something,” said Hubble.
“We got the kids, and I walked around the boat and noticed they were hammerheads. You could tell they were feeding on something and doing their thing. Everybody was climbing all over boats and stuff. It was very dramatic to see for sure in probably like 2 foot of water, if that,” he explained.
Hubble says there were 6 to 8 sharks swarming the area, and the clear water made the perfect vantage point.
“There was four to six on one side of the boat and all of a sudden, two of them came up behind me and went around me. They stayed close together,” said Hubble.
“They were good-sized,” he added. “There was one that had to be every bit of 8 to 10 feet and they averaged- the smallest one maybe 6 to 10 feet.”
Hubble literally soaked in the moment. He was the only one standing in the water.
“If I had known my fiancee was filming me, I would have knelt down and let them slurk around,” he laughed.
Hubble is no stranger to the beach. He says he doubts this’ll happen again.
“I’ve never seen that, every weekend for years I’ve come out and I’ve never seen sharks come up like that,” he said,
The sharks, Hubble says, were in and out of the area in about 10 minutes.
Saturday’s sighting comes nearly two months after a pregnant hammerhead shark washed up on Orange Beach, the remains gathered by biologists for study.
Hubble says the shark rendezvous at Robinson Island is a true reminder of who really runs the place.
“I think everybody needs to know that when we go down there, we’re in their world. So they live there. That happens so rare. People need to know it’s a fun place to go, you need to keep going. That’s their world,” he said.
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