Fishermen Have Close Encounter With Great White off Cape May Coast

For the second time in a few weeks, a great white shark has been seen off the Jersey Shore.

This time, a group of fishermen had an up close and personal encounter, as the shark swam up and tore a basket of bait off the side of their boat Saturday evening around 5 p.m., NBC Philadelphia reports.

The shark then returned and swam in the area of the boat several times before departing.

The group of fishermen included a retiree from Avalon who told CBS 2 he was "stunned" when he first saw the shark, further calling the incident a once in a lifetime encounter.
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It was the second sighting of a great white shark off the Jersey Shore this month. The first was seen off Monmouth Beach on June 15.

In May, an app developed by the non-profit organization Ocearch detected a 16-foot great white shark off the coast of Atlantic City.

In 2012, a six-foot sand tiger shark was caught off the coast of Ocean City, and last year, fishermen captured video of a shark feeding on a dead dolphin off the coast of Atlantic City.

While shark sightings have become more common over the years, encounters such as this along the Jersey Shore are rare.

Shark sightings forced the closure of beaches in Ocean County in 2010, and in 2005, a teenager claimed to have part of his foot bitten off by a shark, but the incident was never conclusively linked to a shark.

The most famous shark attacks did take place off the coast of the Jersey Shore, with a rash of attacks from a great white inspiring the 1976 film "Jaws."

Although this was not an attack, it was a close call, and enough to stir up some excitement on board the boat.

A video from the encounter is attached to this post.