Brett Barley, a fisherman from North Carolina, shared a GoPro video where he was at the center of a shark feeding frenzy off the coast of Cape Point.
“A MASSIVE Shark Feeding Frenzy Engulfed my @seadoo while I was out fishing today!,” he shared on Instagram, adding “And on top of the hundreds of Sharks eating bait over a 4acre wide area, a big school of Red Drum blitzed in to join the party! Sharks & Drum coexisting to devoure menhaden… a full on Nat Geo moment if I’ve ever had one!”.
“The things you see in Cape Hatteras never cease to amaze me! Also, 10/10 would not recommend being in the middle of a ball of Spinner Sharks though….I’m very fortunate one didn’t sky right into me or all my gear,” Barley concluded in his statement.
The videos showed Barley in his personal vessel surrounded by numerous sharks, who appeared to be eating baitfish. The sharks could be seen thrashing about in the water, and some even leaped to catch the fish – all a little distance away from Barley.
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Here’s all you need to know about the fisherman who found himself in an extraordinary situation.
Brett Barley: 5 things to know
- Barley is a surfer and fisherman. An old interview indicates he grew up in Buxton, North Carolina.
- Barley is married and has kids. His wife’s name is Casey and his kid is Masen, as per the surfer’s Facebook bio. In an interview he spoke about surfing and making time for family. “It takes a lot. I have to make sure that before and after a trip I’m totally focused on my family. I need to be with them,” he had said, adding, “I will never let anything come between my relationship with my family. Balancing surfing and my family can sometimes be tough. My wife and I are on the same page in terms of raising our kids and the way we live our life,” Barley had told Outer Banks Voice.
- Barley has traveled the world, surfing from Pipeline to Iceland, but has a soft corner for Outer Banks surfing. “Cape Hatteras is the closest thing to the continental shelf on the East Coast, other than Miami, Fla. Our swell has a lot of power. We have really good sand bars and they set up for pretty epic days of waves,” he said at the time.
- Barley is deeply religious and his social media bio says he’s a ‘follower of Jesus’. Speaking of balancing faith and service, Barley said “I came to know the Lord at 12 years old. I just knew from the get-go, and the way He revealed Himself to me, that I never wanted to abandon Him or leave Him for anything.” He added “As I got older and saw some of my friends start drifting away from the Lord, I still knew putting Him first was my goal. I never wanted to live life apart from him. It brought me to a place where I was able to form a relationship with my now-wife. I have two children and it’s a place I never would have been had I not had a relationship with God. At the time I could’ve acted based on my own selfish ambition, but I wanted to make sure I put God first. He has led me to where I am now, and I definitely would not have this life without him.”
- Barley shared a relationship with 11-time WSL World Champion Kelly Slater, considered the greatest pro surfer ever. He said “We were in Hawaii together once, chatting about his surf farm (Artificial Wave Facility) in Santa Clara, Calif., and he invited me to come surf. On my way home from surfing the Pipeline in Hawaii, I stopped in at his surf ranch and that was really special. It was really rad to get to see that place in person.”
As per WRAL, a local news station, Barley was fishing from his personal vessel and managed to catch a shark by accident. The creature chewed through the line and broke free. When Barley later returned to the area he encountered the feeding frenzy, as per the report.