Seven years ago, one moment forever changed Chip Michalove’s whole world. All alone at sea, aboard his 26-foot fishing boat off the coast of Hilton Head Island, Michalove saw something he had been waiting his whole life for: a great white shark.
“It circled my boat for 15 minutes before it took the bait,” Michalove, charter captain of Outcast Sport Fishing, said. “It scared me really bad. It didn’t want the bait; it wanted the boat. I’ve never seen a shark like that.” Michalove froze. He didn’t know what to do when the shark took the bait. He had spent so many years hoping and praying for this moment.
“It was a moment I’ll never forget because half my brain was telling me this is too big, I bit off more than I could chew, I needed to cut the anchor line and get the hell out of there,” he said. “And then the other side of my brain was telling me you waited years, you waited your whole life to see a great white, you’re not going anywhere.”
And just like that, his big moment was gone. The great white spit the hook before Michalove could reel in the largest shark he’d ever seen.
For 12 straight winters, Michalove had tried to catch a great white shark off the coast of Hilton Head Island. Before he came around with his crazy idea, fishermen didn’t even think about attempting to find monstrous sharks off the South Carolina coast. Michalove was ridiculed by the other local fishermen who said he was on a “great white goose chase” trying to catch a creature they weren’t sure was out there. At that point, there was no evidence of great white sharks lurking in the area. But Michalove had a gut feeling and a goal, and he went after it.
Michalove headed back to his dock at Hilton Head Harbor a changed man. He’d accomplished his life goal of seeing a great white off the coast of his home, Hilton Head. His mind raced with mixed emotions thinking about what he had just seen.
“I felt like I won the lottery, saw a ghost and my dog died at the same time,” he said. “It was the highest of highs I’ve ever felt and the lowest of lows I’ve ever felt. I accomplished a lifelong dream, but I didn’t have any evidence of it.”
He called the local paper, The Island Packet, and told his tall tale of the great white off Hilton Head Island. They didn’t buy it. The reporter said he didn’t believe him.
Michalove was angry, but he was also motivated. “The best motivation in the world is when somebody says you can’t do it or when somebody says you didn’t do it. So, I knew we had to get proof,” he said.
Michalove got a few deck hands to come with him on his next couple of trips. And soon enough, he caught a shark and posed with a photo of him touching the shark’s nose. The photo went viral. The internet went wild. Soon, Fox News, CNN, The Washington Post, and every major news outlet was calling him for a story. And The Island Packet called, too.
Now, Michalove is known as a Great White Shark Whisperer, and for good reason. He’s caught more than 30 great white sharks and has made headlines around the world for his adventures. He’s one of the only fishermen on the East Coast who can consistently catch great whites with a rod and reel.
Protecting the species
With every shark Michalove catches, he learns more about great white sharks and develops a deeper respect for the apex predator of the Atlantic. “It’s the smartest fish in the ocean; it just doesn’t act like other sharks,” Michalove said. “Everything a great white does is methodical and purposeful.”
Michalove has learned a lot about their behaviors. Every shark he has encountered has shown a different personality. “The larger ones are always calmer,” he said. “It’s the small ones that are squirrelly and unpredictable.”
Every great white he catches is for scientific purpose. The more great white sharks Michalove catches and tags with a tracking device, the more scientists learn about the sharks’ migration patterns.
A large number of great white sharks spend their summers in the New England area before they head to the southeastern United States between December and March every year. “We’ve learned a lot about their migration routes, and we’re learning much more on water temperatures, preferred water clarity and their preferred food,” Michalove said.
Michalove won’t share his secrets, though. “Every day I get a call from someone from Charleston or Savannah asking me, ‘Where are you finding these great whites? How far out? What kind of depth?’” he said. “I feel like a jerk, but I feel like I have the code to the Holy Grail, and I don’t want to give that out.”
Michalove worries about amateurs hunting for great whites and hurting them in the process. “I feel like humans just ruin everything, and I don’t want to ruin this species,” he said. “It’s such a difficult fish to figure out, and I love that about great whites.”
Instead, he’s doing everything he can to protect the remarkable great white shark species.
Social media
Ironically, Michalove gets a lot of grief on social media from people who claim to be animal advocates. They accuse him of hurting the shark for sport. “The world has changed so much in 10 years; people have gotten so much more sensitive,” he said. “Ten years ago, I could post a picture of a dead shark and people would congratulate me. Now, I have to be so careful about the pictures I post.”
He often gets lengthy hate mail from people who don’t read the full story. He tries to reason with his haters who haven’t spent any time with sharks. From all of his research and fishing experience, he’s learned that sharks just don’t feel pain like humans do.
“You cannot compare a human’s nervous system, the weakest most sensitive animal on this planet, to a 10-million-year-old fish that has survived the Ice Age,” Michalove said. “We are different animals, and we interpret pain differently.”
Michalove said he could give a hundred examples of times he looked at sharks and realized they don’t feel pain the same way we do. “I’ve seen sharks with a stingray barb straight through their snout and they don’t even flinch. They keep eating like nothing happened. Meanwhile, a stingray barb would send humans straight to the emergency room and might kill us without antibiotics.”
Haters who email him or write nasty messages also aren’t paying attention to the fact that he is doing this work for scientific purpose, he said. “It’s amazing to me that the smartest shark scientists in the world are thrilled to be getting this data, yet your average Karen in New Jersey will spend 30 minutes writing an email about what a monster I am, saying that she hopes I wrap my truck around a tree. And she won’t spend five minutes to read the full story about me or the research we’re doing.”
Local love
March is typically the last month for great white shark season in South Carolina, but we only know that because of Captain Chip Michalove, whose shark adventures have shown islanders that there is so much more to Hilton Head Island than golf, beaches and timeshares. He’s shown the world just how much magic is off the Lowcountry coast.
A few times, while looking for sharks, he’s stumbled on some of the ocean’s most fascinating creatures. A few years ago, he made national headlines after taking a viral video of a manta ray the size of a car. In December, Michalove captured an unbelievable video of a North Atlantic right whale playfully swimming alongside its calf off the Hilton Head coast.
Blown away by all of the local support, Michalove said, “I’m really appreciative of how the island has really embraced it. When I first started catching great whites, I was a little afraid the locals would be upset with how it could impact tourism. But really, it’s had the opposite effect.”
What’s next
Michalove is still in disbelief looking back on this seven-year great white adventure. “If you would have told me 10 years ago that we’d be catching great white sharks off Hilton Head, South Carolina, I would have said, ‘you’re crazy,’” he said. “I still can’t really believe it when I put my hand on a great white shark.”
Great white shark fishing really doesn’t get easier as time passes. “When it comes to hunting or fishing, you know, you’re supposed to get better every single season,” Michalove said. “But there are so many variables out of your control when you go out there, it’s hard to do it.”
This season hasn’t been his best, but it’s still “a dream come true” every day he catches one, he said. What’s next? A bigger shark, of course.
“I really want to catch one 4,000 pounds or above—that’s my goal,” Michalove said. “I’d like to catch at least an 18-footer. I know they’re out there; they’ve seen them in Cape Cod years ago. I just haven’t caught one that size yet, but I think it’s inevitable.”
