Okaloosa Island Pier

One of the things you must do when visit the beach is visit the pier. All the different types of fish you see are just amazing. On our visit, we were able to see large sting rays eating fisher's bait, barracudas lurking in the water waiting for fish to be thrown back in, dolphins jumping in the sunset, and little sharks. Or should I say, things we thought were sharks, we were in for an awakening.

My family and I overheard a woman telling her children that there were sharks. So of course, we hurried over to where the woman was and looked over the edge. Sure enough, there were 'little sharks'. In my opinion, I would not have said they were little. Anything over 4 feet is considered a big fish to me. As time went by, we stayed there watching the 'sharks' and people came by to see what we were looking at.

One of the fisherman, who spends most of his days on the pier fishing, came over to ask what we were looking at.

I pointed down near the pillars and said that we were looking at the group of 5 or 6 little sharks. He looked over the edge and laughed. I looked at him a little confused at what he thought was funny. I looked at me and said "honey, those aren't little sharks, those are the little fish that STICK to the sharks". If you look closely to the pictures below, you can see them.

That thought scared me. I looked back over the edge at the 4 foot long strange fish and remembered the old days of watching Discovery Channel. I pictured the sharks with those so-called 'little fish' attached to the bellyside of the shark. They did not look quite that big when I saw it on television. I looked back over the edge, and come to my surprise, a huge shark was next to all those fish. I called the guy back over and he looked down. While pulling his hat back, he assured me that those were the sharks he was talking about, the Tiger Shark, which can grow up to 16 feet in length. That thought made me shiver and I decided to go to a different side of the pier. Come to my attention, they were not that easy to get away from. The further down the pier I went, the more I saw them. I was also informed by an air traffic control man that sharks swim closer to the shore than people think.

I found a group of fishermen and decided watching them would take my mind off of the sharks.

I wound up next to a young man and things seemed pretty calm. I was looking over the edge and found myself looking at long, slick fish. I asked the man next to me what they were and he told me that I was looking at a group of Barracudas and that they like to wait for people to unhook a fish and throw it back in.

Moments later, the guy that I originally came to watch was surronded by a crowd of people and reeling in with all his strength. About 15 minutes later, he finally reeled in a fish called the Cobia.

All in all, I must say that it was an interesting visit and you never know what you'll learn or the things you'll find on your visit.