Video: Rare Great White Shark Encounter Caught on Camera

Check out the video at the bottom of this story.

John Dickinson has had lots of underwater encounters in his time as a diver, but none quite like the one he experienced Friday.

Dickinson and his wife were spear fishing for cobia in about 130 feet of water near Jupiter when a 16-foot great white caught his attention, WPTV reported. He wasted no time in capturing the sight on video, which he later posted to YouTube.

”When you have an encounter with one, it’s something you never forget,” Dickinson told the station.

Great whites are not entirely unheard of in Florida waters, but sightings are quite rare. This species tends to prefer colder waters, which made Friday’s encounter that much more memorable, Dickinson said.

“To see a great white is just, they’re just so majestic,” he told WPBF. “It was awesome.”

Dickinson estimated the great white to be about 2,000 pounds.

See Also:

• Betsy the Great White Shark Swimming in St. Pete Waters
• Huge Florida Shark Swarm Caught on Film
• Katharine the Great White Shark Returns to Florida
• Photo: Big Bobcat Drags Shark Onto Florida Beach
• Great White Attacks Fishing Boat
• Shark Attacks: What Are The Odds?

“What an amazing encounter off Jupiter today with a great white shark,” Dickinson wrote on his YouTube post. “So glad Bobbi and I could see her together.”

The Dickinsons’ encounter with the great white isn’t the only one that has made headlines in the Sunshine State this year. Back in January, a great white attacked a fishing boat while tagged great whites, Katharine and Betsy, have paid the state visits in recent months. News of Betsy’s arrival off of St. Petersburg’s coastline created quite a stir since Gulf of Mexico sightings tend to be especially rare because of the water temperatures there.

Florida leads the world in the number of annual reported shark attacks. In 2014, there were 72 reported shark attacks worldwide with 52 in the United States. Twenty-eight of those attacks were recorded in Florida. In the U.S., there were no reported fatalities. Of the other 20 attacks outside the United States, three deaths were reported.

This year has already kicked off with a number of reported attacks. Whether Florida will lead the nation and the world in the number of attacks in 2015 remains to be seen, but George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus, said people need to remember “there has to be an understanding when you enter the sea, it’s a wilderness experience.”

To learn more about sharks in Florida, visit the Florida Museum of Natural History online.

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