Great white shark caught off Hilton Head named after legendary friend-to-all Jason Flack

According to local shark whisperer Chip Michalove, “we’ll be hearing about this great white shark named Jason Flack for many years.” Flack, 45, was killed in February in a hit-and-run collision and Michalove wanted to ensure his name would live on so he named a shark in honor of his memory.

And it’s not just any shark - what’s likely to be Michalove’s last tagged great white of the season is roughly a dozen years old, nine feet in length and just under 500 pounds. After being tagged and named, it will be carrying more than $10,000 of tracker and camera technology. In a few weeks, the shark will be trackable on the Sharktivity app. Michalove predicts the shark may head north towards Canada as the water warms.

Flack was well-known in the Hilton Head and Bluffton areas for his loving personality and the joy he brought with him everywhere. Friends would say that Flack couldn’t go anywhere without making a new friend. Flack’s loved ones are doing what they can to keep his memory going. In this case, naming him after what Michalove called “the baddest fish in the ocean.”

While Michalove didn’t have a close relationship with Flack, he left the same impression with Michalove that countless people have shared.

“I’m not as close as a friend. I don’t have his phone number. He’s never been in my house,” Michalove said. “But, I know that if I ran into him in passing and said, ‘Hey, can you give me a ride to Savannah for my car?’ he would be happy to help in any way possible. He’s that type of person that will drop anything he’s doing to help a stranger or acquaintance.”

“I think it’s fitting to his personality because he was ‘go big or go home’ no matter what he did,” said Wendy Bader, Flack’s fiance. “Whatever he did, he had to have the biggest and best.”

Typically, Michalove will try to match a shark’s gender with its namesake, but felt Flack wouldn’t mind being the exception. “I know Jason personally, and I think he would even chuckle at the fact that a female shark was named after him,” he said. Laughing about it, Bader agreed that Flack would have gotten a kick out of it.

“I’ll never stop naming them after somebody who needs a smile or somebody who may need a bit of a lift,” Michalove said. “And you know, the water community was a little banged up from that situation, and I think he would enjoy it.”