Gotta Watch: Up-close shark encounters
An 18-foot great white shark appears off the coast of Sydney.
July 12th, 2012
10:58 AM ET

Gotta Watch: Up-close shark encounters

Forget “Jaws.” We’ve seen all sorts of real-life shark encounters in the last few weeks. Whether people are fishing, diving, or kayaking, sharks seem to be showing up everywhere. You’ve Gotta Watch these incredible videos. Have you ever had a close call with a shark? Let us know in the comments below.

Swimming with a shark

Two friends who were spearfishing off the coast of Australia got a nasty surprise when a great white shark came between them and their boat. The tense moments were caught on one diver’s helmet cam.

Dinner time

Fishers in South Carolina and Australia both had sharks appear out of nowhere to snatch a fish off their lines. It's hard to say what's better: the footage of the sharks or the reaction from the people fishing.

Shark week

Multiple sightings of great white sharks off Cape Cod have visitors worried. See the incredible shots of a great white shark stalking a kayaker and hear experts' take on what's drawing the sharks to the Cape.

Rocking the boat

Fishermen in Sydney captured unbelievable video of an 18-foot great white biting the smaller blue shark that was on their line. Would you be able to hold the camera steady as long as they did?

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Filed under: Animals • Gotta Watch • Sharks
soundoff (55 Responses)
  1. Daniel

    Who would go fishing with females? That's like fishing with a colic baby. I hate crying/screaming girls and babies.

    July 13, 2012 at 3:59 pm | Report abuse |
  2. kpshrkluv

    Absolutely in love with GREAT WHITE SHARKS! I swam with them out in Mossel Bay, South Africa last August during a program with White Shark Africa UK....infact I love them so much I had one recently tattooed in my armpit!!!!

    July 13, 2012 at 4:51 pm | Report abuse |
    • Harvey

      One of these days you are going to end up wearing a shark skin coat.

      July 13, 2012 at 7:21 pm | Report abuse |
  3. works4me

    As a scuba diver I now trust sharks more than most humans. Sharks are more predictable...

    July 13, 2012 at 6:22 pm | Report abuse |
    • Harvey

      Agreed, see my post from 7:13 July 13

      July 13, 2012 at 7:22 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Harvey

    If want to see an interesting sight, buy a ride in a light aircraft down the Florida coast line a couple hundred feet above the water. From that vantage point you can see all the way to the bottom. Up next to the shore you will see swarms of people in the water. A hundred meters out you will see swarms of sharks.

    Every once in a while you will see some fool person swimming among all the sharks and sometimes you will see some fool shark swimming in with all the people. The bad part about this is you can not see the sharks from the surface; you have to be overhead.

    The fact that there are as few shark attacks in Florida as there are tells me for the most part sharks leave people alone. Unfortunately when they don't, people die.

    July 13, 2012 at 7:13 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Craig

    the fin from the kayak photo, while a VERY cool photo, was confirmed to be a harmless, plankton eating basking shark and NOT a great white. For some reason (oh wait, ratings!), CNN keeps posting that photo as a great white.

    July 13, 2012 at 7:32 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Craig

    @Kately, actually it was confirmed NOT to be a white shark. Whites havent been coming to the Cape for a few years, they've been coming here since before the Pilgrims landed and long before that as well. The same with basking sharks and dozens of other species that are native to this area (I live here).

    Whites also don't cruise the surface like in Jaws. Lazy, surfacing cruising is a classic behavior of a basking shark sucking up plankton. We often see huge basking sharks come straight at our boat every summer. It's not that they are attacking or stalking us, it just happens to be the direction they were traveling in before we noticed them. They barely take notice of us and only change course just enough to avoid a collision. That's almost certainly what happened with the kayak.

    July 13, 2012 at 7:40 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Hannah spencer

    I got to hold and kiss a nurse shark and scuba dive within a foot of an eight foot white tip

    July 14, 2012 at 1:09 am | Report abuse |
  8. Phoebe

    I was in myrtle beach last spring break and while I was surfing (poorly) I looked to my side and saw a shark fin. Needless to say I got right out. Then the year before, my friend brought me in vacation to cape cod with her family and we went deep sea Tina fishing, where I once Xsan saw a shark fin which was confirmed to belong to a great white according to our captain. My biggest fear is sharks as one might imagine!

    July 15, 2012 at 2:18 am | Report abuse |
    • Phoebe

      im sorry for all the typos. I typed this with an iPod! My apologies!

      July 15, 2012 at 2:21 am | Report abuse |
  9. snorkeling

    In 1977 I was snorkeling in the Gulf, off Yucatan at Tulum and went out to the reef. I shark spotted me and came toward me. I pointed my borrowed speargun and was squeezing the trigger with the lock on, so did not shoot. The shark came toward me then veered off underneath me. I swan anxiously into shere. I wonder what would have happened if the speargun was not locked. The spear could have just glanced off the shark's side.

    July 15, 2012 at 10:15 am | Report abuse |
  10. seoandco

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    September 8, 2012 at 11:19 am | Report abuse |
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