Gnarly great white encounter filmed about three miles west of Great Island in Wellfleet where a boy nearly gets his hat knocked off by an airborne apex predator. That was a close one kid:
Incredible footage today from Doug Nelson of Franklin, MA fishing aboard the Columbia out of Rock Harbor in Orleans. @MA_Sharks pic.twitter.com/rK3yk5j6SG
— Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (@A_WhiteShark) July 20, 2019
This is the Provincetown Police Department’s statement about the incident:
‘It actually slapped the boat with its tail’: Video shows shark leap at boat in Cape Cod Bay….
Captain Marc Costa had just taken a group of people out fishing in Cape Cod Bay when a shark leapt out of the water right in front of them.
Costa, of Columbia Sportfishing in Orleans, said his boat the Columbia was about three miles west of Great Island in Wellfleet when the encounter took place around 1 p.m. Saturday.
“We have just gone out and got two fish on.” “Bringing the fish in, you can see what happened. That animal came up and grabbed the fish, right there. Right in our faces. It was pretty cool.”
He’s been captaining charter boats for years, and he is pretty certain it was a great white shark.
“It came up and it grabbed the fish and then it made a circular leap to get back in the water and go away,” Costa said. “It actually slapped the boat with its tail.”
The family on the boat can be heard yelling in awe as the encounter was caught on video.
Columbia Sportsfishing wrote on their Instagram page that there was “a real-life episode of shark week today in Cape Cod Bay.”
The shark took half of the bass off the line, Costa said. The other half was reeled in.
Just 10 days prior and about two miles south, Costa said people on his 42-foot wooden sport-fishing vessel saw a much bigger great white shark do the same thing. That shark was about 70 feet from the boat, he said.
Sharks are continually spotted in the waters off Cape Cod as they prey upon seals in the area. Several groups keep close eye on the activity to keep people safe.
Last year one man died and another man was seriously injured by sharks.