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"I saw a duck at first and then I noticed the fin. We were in a 10-foot skiff and the shark was another half again longer than we were. We got right up next to it, right up next to the side of the shark," he said, talking Thursday from the Legislative Audit Office, where he works. Hooten figures the shark probably was a salmon shark - one of the most common of the varieties found in Southeast Alaska. White sharks are sometimes spotted, but Hooten said this is so rare he doubts that was it.

And while others might have been shaking with fear - or awe - at the prospect of such a massive shark so near, Hooten approached the situation the practical way: He simply steered off.

Hooten is not alone - many area residents who spend time out on the water have at least a shark tale or two.

"Usually it is not a big event. You just look over and see a shark," he said.

Hooten operates Seahook Charters of Alaska with his father, Larry, and brother, Shane. They have tapered activity for the charter business recently because of fuel prices, but still get out on personal trips, Hooten said.

Larry Hooten, a longtime Juneau resident, rattled off a list of rumored shark encounters - a sighting of a 17-foot white shark in the 1980s; a white shark caught up in a seiner's net near Angoon; increasing numbers of sharks because of higher water temperatures.

Sharks have long held people's imaginations captive.

"There has always been a mystique about them going back to when man first ventured into the water," said Ralph Collier, who heads the Los Angeles-based Shark Research Committee. "They were referred to back then as sea monsters. That mystique has carried over and been heightened by certain events."

Collier tracks shark attacks along the Pacific Coast, particularly those reportedly done by great whites - the shark made famous by the movie, "Jaws."

Collier said that movie still effects the way people think of sharks, but with more information out circulating, people are getting a better understanding of true shark behavior.

"Hopefully this understanding will mean that people will be not be afraid to use the water and use it responsibly," Collier said.

No shark attacks have ever been reported in Southeast Alaska - in large part because most people don't venture into the water here as often as they do in the tropics. White sharks have been reported ramming boats off the coast of British Columbia, Collier said. Most often, the ramming is attributed to a type of territorial behavior - similar to a dog defending its food.

"Any attack on a boat is not a feeding attack," Collier said.

Sharks are one of the Earth's animals that relatively little is known about - and this area of the world is no different.

What is known is that 10 types of shark have been spotted in Southeast Alaska. The most common are the salmon shark, the spiny dogfish and the Pacific sleeper shark.

In 1999, the Conservation Science Institute created a Shark Assessment Program as a way to collect information, particularly about these species.

Salmon sharks are commonly seen by fishermen, particularly trollers or gillnetters. Like their name implies, these sharks feed off salmon, although they commonly eat herring or squid as well.

One question scientists have yet to answer is why females tend to congregate in Alaska's waters and the males head to coastal Japan, said Jon Warrenchuk, a fisheries biologist for the ocean advocacy organization, Oceana.

Spiny dogfish sharks are one of the most abundant sharks on the globe and are often found traveling in schools, according to the Conservation Science Institute. They are relatively small - about three feet in length. They are most commonly spotted in Alaska's coastal waters from spring to fall.

Shark populations around the globe are notoriously vulnerable to overfishing and research has become an important tool for conservation efforts - and as an indicator of how well the ocean ecosystem is faring. A rise in numbers means "we are doing pretty well," Warrenchuk said.

In Alaska, Oceana pays close attention to proposals to start up a shark fishery, which does not exist in the state. Several proposals have failed because of the awareness that shark populations are vulnerable to overfishing. Warrenchuk said Oceana urges people to be very careful when it comes to thinking about creating a shark fishery.

There is limited data on "basic life characteristics, or even how many there are out there," he said. "So making a fishery when you don't know that is not a good idea."

• Brittany Retherford can be reached at brittany.retherford@juneauempire.com.