‘Jaws 2’ Recreation: Great White Shark Terrorizes Family

Great White Sharks often come close to swimmers, boaters, and fisherman, sometimes without the people involved even realizing it. Other times, encounters result in attacks by these predators, motivated either by a sense of self preservation or mere hunger. Recently, however, two Great White Shark encounters left those involved in one piece and with one heck of a fish story to tell.

A Great White Shark Comes Nose To Nose With Fishermen

A group of fishermen stopped their boat in the shallow waters, just off the shore of Whangarei, New Zealand, in the hopes of catching live bait for an upcoming fishing competition. Instead, the men caught an encounter with a very curious Great White Shark, much of which they captured on video.

The Great White Shark starts out timidly eyeing the fishing boat, but grows bolder with each pass around the hull. Before long, the shark is close enough that one of the fishermen announces that he can reach out and pet the Great White.

“Don’t lose your hand. Better watch out bro,” cautions another one of the fishermen.

The fisherman who pet the shark admitted that the experience made his day. All the same, everyone on board was well aware of the danger posed by the Great White Shark’s visit. Shark attacks have occurred in less than three feet of water, proving that encounters such as this one can often turn deadly.

There are more than 480 known species of shark, but only three of those species have participated in the growing number of fatal attacks on humans. Those seemingly unprovoked attacks have been perpetrated by the Great White Shark, Bull Shark, and Tiger Shark.

There were 98 shark attacks in 2015 alone.

Jaws 2 Recreation? A Great White Shark Terrorizes A Boatload Of Children

There was a scene in 1978’s Jaws 2 in which a group of teenagers takes their boats out into the channel, against Sheriff Brody’s (Roy Scheider) strict orders. Naturally, the shark shows up and holds the children hostage, until Brody arrives to save the day.

It now seems life has imitated art in Lake Macquarie, just off the beaches of Australia. A Great White Shark with an estimated length of 2.5 meters spent the afternoon terrorizing a family, ruining their day of boating and fun. The shark circled the boat, just as was the case with the Whangarei fishermen; but, in this case, the shark seemed much more menacing.

The incident was recorded and the video features the family’s children fearing for their lives. It seemed that a Great White attack was imminent.

“Fricking h— Dad, reverse! I just don’t want it to attack us. It’s circling us,” yelled one of the sons.

Warning: The video contains strong language.

For his part, the shark seemed to be playing, bobbing up and down in the water, before disappearing only to reappear a few short minutes later. The actions of the shark seemed to make the parents both nervous and amused in equal measure. The father told his children to calm down, remarking that it was unlikely the shark would jump into the boat to get them. Apparently, he has never seen Jaws.

“God, it’s just hovering there,” observed the children’s mother. “It’s just sitting there!”

Believing he could startle the Great White Shark and chase him away, the father splashed the water close to the predator. For a moment, it seemed all he had accomplished was to alarm his family. Children and mother all started yelling for him to be careful and not aggravate the creature any further. Even as the father scolds his family for their emotional reactions, the massive shark circled the boat one last time, before it swam off.

[Image via Universal Pictures]