A Shark Researcher Has A Close Encounter With A Great White

More White Sharks — This July 28, 2016, frame from video provided by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries shows a white shark off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass. Scientists say the great white shark detected in waters off Maine could be a sign that the big fish might become more of a presence in the area in the years to come.

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August 08, 2018

Greg Skomal, a senior biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries is in the final year of a five year population study of great white sharks off Cape Cod. He has been researching sharks for 36 years and never had an experience like he did on July 30th.

"It was a routine day for us,really. What we were trying to do is what we do twice a week during the four and a half months of summer. We get out there and identify and catalog every white shark we see and try to tag them," Skomal said.

He was on the bow of the research vessel that patrols the waters off Cape Cod, when a great white suddenly breached the water. The encounter was captured on video that has been released by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. On it, the captain of the vessel, John J. King II, can be heard yelling, "Oh! It jumped right out of the water! Man! "

Skomal said the murky water off Wellfleet that day initially hampered his visibility. "I'm looking down in the water, looking down in the water, and a shark leapt up right to the pulpit, mouth agape, looking me right in the eye and I looked down and I could see straight down its throat into its mouth. It was crazy," he recalled.

Skomal was not able to tag the shark, and the breach lasted a split second. He said the experience serves as a reminder that sharks are unpredictable and people should remain vigilant, but it has not changed his attitude towards the animals.

"I"m fascinated by them," he said. " I'm driven by them and much of my career of the last 30 plus years has been studying them and I intend to keep doing that. The research goes on."