15-feet, 3000 lbs, all heart.
Contrary to the popular aphorism, nothing can be said to be certain in this world, except death. Taxes can easily be dodged by moving all accounts to Bermuda and placing assets in children’s names or other such inventiveness but death… The Reaper comes for all. Sometimes far too early, sometimes far too late, but 100% of the time.
And there is a very sad, still unsolved 2016 hit-and-run case involving a 14-year-old girl from South Carolina killed on her way home from a track meet in 2016. A local Hilton Head Islands fisherman is making sure people don’t forget and maybe even leads to new evidence that can be used to put a heartless murderer behind bars and let us read the bittersweet tale together.
Captain Chip Michalove, owner of Outcast Sport Fishing, caught a 15-foot great white shark off Hilton Head Island. He named her Grace after 14-year-old Grace Sulak.
“You know this is kinda, maybe a way to help somebody who many need a little bit of healing and try to find a little more about the case,” said Michalove.
Michalove said he hopes the tribute will bring some closure to the family of Sulak, who was an aspiring marine biologist.
The great white shark that Michalove reeled in weighed around 2,800 pounds. Michalove, and his crew, took tissue samples and tagged the shark before naming her Grace.
Captain Michalove wrote beautifully on Instagram:
Great day yesterday landing this 15 footer. It was too rough to get out so we stayed in close and had this big lady show up at 10:30 yesterday. Big Grace never really panicked. Definitely one of the easiest sharks we’ve worked on. Once we got her boatside, we kept a motor in gear and she just slowly swam with us. She got an array of tags and tissue samples. We’re naming her Grace, after an aspiring marine biologist Grace Sulak that was killed in a hit and run May 7, 2016 on I-26. The white truck that caused the accident was never found. You can follow Grace on Sharktivity.
Grace was, of course, released back into the water as obscenely huge Great White sharks taste gamey and mercurial. She now swims fierce and proud in memoriam but back to the case:
The South Carolina Highway Patrol said the driver of the vehicle involved in the crash has not been identified. According to South Carolina crime stoppers the vehicle involved in the crash was a white Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab. The family said the truck could look different now but the search to find the person responsible hasn’t stopped.
If you have information about the crash, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-888-crime-SC.
Do the right thing.
And no more surfing in South Carolina.
Just to be safe no more surfing in North Carolina or Florida either.
NonJohn has love for sharks, but might actually hate acai bowls.
Let it be
It’s nature
Tagging – the ultimate distraction from actually saving sharks.
I just want to say to the Aussies, we are praying for everyone there and the animals too, please be safe mates during these fires…
I’ve been to Charleston,lovely little city.
…and occasionaly some fun tubes ( ;
No more swimming?! Once again, sharks are beautiful creatures and should be understood rather than feared. Way to demonize and make villians of them…
I think you’re missing the point Bradley. But aren’t we all?
Its Monday and Monday’s sharks go around doing what’s natural to sharks , eating Australians and being generally disagreeable . Don’t be a shark or an Australian. Disagreeable is doable by all.
Pot kettle black, yankee?
Eh! Don’t be an Australian is it? Bit nasty there boyo. Us Australians are wonderful people. We make nice beer and wine. Our whisky isn’t too bad either but best of all, although our PM is a bit of a dick. He isn’t Trump!!!!
It’s just so irresponsible to release a shark like that to maim and kill surfers and swimmers.
Possible act of terrisom.
Lock him up
You want to usurp water that belongs to the shark. What a stupid thought may that be!
The shark owns nothing. It’s a thieving , killing gypsy of the sea.
Letting it go was boarder line terrisom and totally un American.
It will attack again!
He didn’t have to kill it…he could have just cut its fin off and made a nice soup out of it.
Sea belongs to the aquatic life form and sharks help keep the balance in the ecosystem. Read up and educate yourself a bit. Your statement is lame and oh so typically biased.
Thank u Bonnie
I’ve been reading beachgrits informative articles on these devil creatures called sharks for quite a while.
It’s clear that we surfers are being threatened in our surfing spots. We need to ban together and destroy these evil killers once and for all or the whole surf industry will suffer!
Stupidity really doesn’t hurt, huh? If it did, you’d be wriggling in pain and wouldn’t have been able to type your stupid comment.
Your a very angry person!
Try and chill out and relax over a nice warm bowl of shark fin soup?
And you can’t even tell the correct difference between “your” and “you’re”. You just keep proving my point.
Don’t be so pedantic. Chill out a little and enjoy a great white fillet of fish!
Baby dolphin burger maybe?
You are sooooo right !
You’re an idiot! The shark only does what natural to it. It doesn’t have the ability to reason what’s actually prey and what’s not. Science has proven that their eyesight isn’t good enough to differentiate between a surfer and a seal. Get your facts straight before passing judgment. BTW it’s boRDErline not boARDer line. Board is the spelling for a plank of wood. Border is the line of demarcation that separates two or more areas.
I think he meant that as a pun, like in surf board!
You do realize that he is making a fool of you with his satirical posts and probably enjoying himself enormously reading your comments.
U arent to bright are ya
If silly surfers stopped wearing black wetsuits and imitating Seals by wearing them sharks would leave them alone.
It’s irresponsible to catch & KILL a shark. Please learn about sea life. It’s their territory.
Waves have been fun as in the low country last three days. Cacalackyyyyyy!
Stop it. You’re going to get eaten. I mean, no you but… wink wink.
What Mista Sparkle said. Bout to head out to Folly now. These sharks have always been here. The thing that trips me out is that we have huge Bulls, Tigers and Whites all along our coastline – and in the case of Bulls, aka Zambezis they come way up our rivers. I get pretty disgusted at the huge sharks a few of our local fishermen slaughter — and let’s make no mistake — they’re killing ’em for the fins because our great backwards state hasn’t done enough to outlaw the practice. No one here I’ve heard of has ever gets attacked by a true man-eater. Knock on Live Oak. Last big attack was in the 1800’s. https://www.postandcourier….
I’ve seen a few of those Dodge Rams around Vicco lately. They’re pretty cheap for the size of them. What’s the deal? Will it replace the Mustang as the Indian/Australian weapon of choice for (aspiring) IT consultants/Uber Eats delivery drivers?
I’ve never owned a Dodge but, instinctively, don’t trust.