Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher, came face-to-face with what could be one of the largest great whites ever recorded

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Two shark researchers who came face to face with what could be one of the largest great whites ever recorded are using their encounter as an opportunity to push for legislation that would protect sharks in Hawaii.

Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher and conservationist, told the Associated Press that she encountered the 20ft (6-metre) shark on Tuesday near a dead sperm whale off Oahu. The event was documented and shared on social media by her fiance and business partner, Juan Oliphant.

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The Hawaii department of land and natural resources said it was aware of photos of the great white and that tiger sharks also had been feeding on the whale.

Oliphant, who photographed the now viral images, said it was unclear if the shark was the famed Deep Blue, believed to be the largest great white ever recorded.

“She looks the part right now,” Oliphant said. “Maybe even more exciting that there is another massive, you know, super-size great white shark out there. Because their populations are so dwindling.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The shark photographed could be Deep Blue, thought to be the largest ever recorded. Photograph: @OCEANRAMSEY/AFP/Getty Images

Ramsey, who operates the Oahu-based One Ocean Diving and Research with Oliphant, said she had been pushing for several years for a bill that would ban the killing of sharks and rays in Hawaii and hoped this year the measure would become law.

She said the images of her swimming next to a huge great white shark proved the predators should be protected, not feared.

There’s not a lot of sympathy for sharks because of the way they’re portrayed in media Ocean Ramsey

Still, the veteran shark diver doesn’t think the general public should recklessly get into the water with the giants, especially around a food source like a rotting whale carcass.

Ramsey said extensive training and time spent studying shark behavior had kept her team and customers safe. She teaches people about how to act and, more importantly, not act when they encounter a shark in the water. She said she had swum with the huge shark on research trips to Guadalupe Island, Mexico, and also led cage-free shark diving tours.

Unlike many marine mammals, sharks are not a federally protected species, though there are laws against the sale of their fins.

“There’s not a lot of sympathy for sharks because of the way they’re portrayed in media and they don’t have the cute cuddly appearance,” Ramsey said. “You can’t hate them for being predators. We need them for healthy marine ecosystems.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ocean Ramsey reviews footage of her encounter. Photograph: Caleb Jones/AP

Ramsey and Oliphant want to make sure that people realize that shark bites are uncommon.

“The idea that they see people as a food source, that is rubbish and that needs to go away because really that’s ultimately leading to the demise of these animals,” Oliphant said.

Ramsey said it was impressive that the great white had survived a “gauntlet of human death traps”.

“I don’t know how old she is,” Ramsey said. “But for her to survive through so many longline fisheries and, you know, gill nets and team nets and fishermen who might just kill her because they think that she is a monster … it’s very special.”

Shark protection legislation, sponsored by the Hawaii state senator Mike Gabbard, is planned to be reintroduced this year.

