Adrenaline-Pumping Video Captures A Ravenous Great White Shark Inches From The Camera

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Written by Angie Menjivar

Updated: November 9, 2023

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Either the person holding the camera in the video below has great skills or great luck. Not only do they manage to capture a great white shark mere inches away, ravenously chomping on bait, but they also capture a serendipitous moment that makes for a truly incredible video.

How Dangerous Are Great White Sharks For Humans?

Although movies paint great white sharks as hungry for human blood, they are not nearly as dangerous as you might think. Great white sharks are intimidating, and they can rip through flesh with their teeth. But just like you have specific tastes when it comes to your favorite foods, great whites do too.

Humans aren’t on the menu for them. They prefer seals and sea lions. Although there have been cases of fatal attacks, these instances are rare.

What Are The Hunting And Feeding Habits Of Great White Sharks?

Great White Shark jumps out of the water and grabs bait. Scientific name: Carcharodon carcharias. South Africa

To bait sharks, cage divers use tuna heads.

©iStock.com/USO

Great white sharks are predatory and when still young, they start snacking on fish and other sharks. However, the older and bigger they get, their diet switches up a bit to include marine mammals like sea lions. They can also be found enjoying the rotting flesh of whale carcasses.

These sharks have special sensory receptors on their bodies that help them locate prey. When they spot something they want to snack on, they move in to snatch it up. To take their prey by surprise, they hunt from below. When ready to attack, they torpedo upward through the water, often breaching due to their speed.

Great White Shark Is Ready For Its Close-Up

Great white sharks are the ocean's apex predators.

Great white sharks are the ocean’s apex predators.

©iStock.com/ShaneMyersPhoto

When divers want to get a closer look at a great white shark, they may head out on the water with a cage and some bait. Usually, the bait is a tuna head. Although there is no guarantee that there will be shark sightings, especially so up close, the use of bait helps to increase the chances of something exciting happening. When the video starts, a great white shark has already taken the bait!

It chomps down and starts lashing, coming frighteningly close to the person in the cage holding the camera. The action is already intense as the person inside the cage keeps filming the hungry great white but just when you think you’ve seen it all, another shark breaches in the background. The camera is angled just right to perfectly capture the once-in-a-lifetime moment!

Is It Normal Behavior for Great White Sharks to Interact With People?

What Do Great White Sharks Eat?

Great white shark pups are big fans of lobster and crab, as well as smaller fish and sharks

©iStock.com/Alessandro De Maddalena

For safety, it is advisable to stay in the proximity of great white sharks only when accompanied by professionals. However, interestingly enough, scientists recently discovered that juvenile white sharks frequently approach swimmers and surfers without attacking.

Research revealed that these young sharks swam close to humans 97% of the time. It’s important to note that juvenile white sharks eventually mature into great white sharks, which are known for their potential danger to humans.

How Big Do Great White Sharks Get?

It may come as a surprise that male great white sharks are generally much smaller than their female counterparts–a paradox, considering it’s the opposite case with a large range of land-dwelling mammals. In fact, some female great whites are over two times larger than males!

Male great whites can weigh between 1,200 and 1,700 lbs and measure 11 to 13 feet in length. Female great whites can weigh between 4,200 and 5,000 lbs and measure from 15 to 16 feet long, although some can get even larger.


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About the Author

Angie Menjivar is a writer at A-Z-Animals primarily covering pets, wildlife, and the human spirit. She has 14 years of experience, holds a Bachelor's degree in psychology, and continues her studies into human behavior, working as a copywriter in the mental health space. She resides in North Carolina, where she's fallen in love with thunderstorms and uses them as an excuse to get extra cuddles from her three cats.

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