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"It was a full on slam attack from down below. He came and hit the boat full speed and knocked it into the air," Davis said. "He wasn't fooling around, and I'm glad it didn't knock me out because I wouldn't have wanted to be in the water. He was aggressive and fired up."
Davis told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that the shark left behind a tooth fragment on the ship's hull and created deep crescent-shaped markings on the fiberglass and wood bottom of the boat.
A friend fishing nearby witnessed the attack and rushed to check on Davis, who was not injured during the encounter.
While Davis has encountered sharks during past fishing trips, he said this was the largest he'd come into contact with.
"I've had other sharks come up to the boat, smaller ones, but not a 15-footer," he said. "This thing was huge. I've never seen anything that large in the water before, and I've see a lot of fish."