This is precisely why there is a fish-eye lens function.
During a cage-diving adventure in South Africa, a 10-foot-long great white leapt within feet of the face of a British diver, giving him a closer shark encounter than most people would choose.
Videos of the jaw-dropping moment from “Jaws” are presently trending online.
“It was incredibly exciting,” said Mark Graham, a shark dive leader and 31-year-old cameraman, describing the tense encounter that took place during a four-hour sharking tour in Mossel Bay Harbor off of Klein Brak Beach.
He planned it through his business, White Shark Ocean, a group of shark aficionados that provide “immersive shark experiences that give people a glimpse into the incredible lives beneath the surface.”
The Preston, England native claimed that this particular mission got off to a good start as four curious sharks circled the boat and began to approach the White-watchers within the cage.
The world’s largest predatory fish, which can grow to be 20 feet long and weigh over 4,000 pounds, got within gnawing reach of Graham’s GoPro, which he used to photograph the scene.
He screamed, “This particular shark was maybe six to nine feet from the boat.”
The shark can be seen breaching with its jaws open in the following video, which was captured from both the cage and the boat. This action is reminiscent of the famous “We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat” sequence from Stephen Spielberg’s 1975 deep sea epic.
Then, within feet of the camera, it grabs a piece of bait that is dangling from the boat and begins to eat it.
Graham claimed that while he was accustomed to seeing the curious animals come cautiously to explore his boat, this was a singular instance in which they showed all of their predatory prowess.
“When we do have active days where the great whites show how effective they are as predators breaching out of the water and lunging for the bait it is amazing to see,” he said.
Despite the terrifying experience, Graham insisted that none of his guests “felt scared.”
Even the visitors who first refused to enter the water changed their minds and entered the shark cage, according to his account.
The shark enthusiast thinks that these up-close encounters will help eliminate the myth that the great white is a man-eating monster in addition to the spectacle part of the Jaw-rasci Park-like experience.
Humans, he claimed, “have an innate fear of things they can’t see or understand. “If you have the opportunity to see them in the wild, take it; I promise your perspective will change.”
The shark enthusiast thinks that these up-close encounters will help eliminate the myth that the great white is a man-eating monster in addition to the spectacle part of the Jaw-rasci Park-like experience.
Humans, he claimed, “have an innate fear of things they can’t see or understand. “If you have the opportunity to see them in the wild, take it; I promise your perspective will change.”
According to Graham, the media is to fault for “perpetuating and exaggerating negative stories about shark encounters.” With more people utilizing the water every year and just five fatal shark attacks in 2022—while humans kill over 11,000 sharks an hour—he remarked, “I don’t think the reputation is justified.”
