Great white shark surprises Florida charter fishing boat
Raw video: Great white shark swims past charter fishing boat 13 miles from Pensacola Pass off the Florida coast.
A group of boaters was in awe as a giant great white shark swam briefly alongside them last week.
Hot Spots Charters captured the captivating "run in" with the predator, which took place about 13 miles from Pensacola Pass — a narrow channel that separates Florida from Santa Rosa Island — on camera. The fishing charter shared the nearly 40-second clip on April 27, garnering more than 70,000 views by Friday afternoon.
"That is a great white. Look at that. Oh, yeah," boaters can be heard commenting as the great white "turns" to approach their vessel.
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"That is crazy!" a man exclaims as the shark heads toward him and then slowly swims off into the distance.
Captain Tyler Massey, who works at Hot Spots Charter, estimated the shark was somewhere around 10 feet long.
Everyone on the boat so enthralled by the sea creature, Massey said they decided to track it for a few minutes.
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"He was just cruising."
"We followed him around for about five minutes. We were sitting there fishing in the spot and the shark just kind of swam up. He just hung out around the top," he told the Pensacola News Journal on Thursday.
But the shark didn't seem to mind the attention.
"He wasn't aggressive. He didn't seem interested in anything we were doing," Massey added. "He was just cruising."
Great white sharks can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 2.5 tons, making them the largest predatory fish to roam the sea, according to National Geographic. But they're not as lethal as you might imagine.
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"Of the 100-plus annual shark attacks worldwide, fully one-third to one-half are attributable to great whites," National Geographic reports. "However, most of these are not fatal, and new research finds that great whites, who are naturally curious, are 'sample biting' then releasing their victims rather than preying on humans."
Adult great white sharks, the world’s largest predatory fish, are known to prey on large fish and marine mammals. These typically include seals and sea lions, in addition to scavenging on whale carcasses and other injured animals, according to the U.S. National Park Service.
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