Two great white sharks spotted just off the coast of Cape Cod Saturday were a reminder of the rebounding shark population off New England and how the waters there could become as dangerous as in the movie "Jaws."
The sharks were recorded by Scott Koerner, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, off Chatham, Massachusetts, where they briefly appeared in shallow water before swimming back into deeper water,
according to the Daily Mail.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy posted the video on its website Sunday.
Just last month, two women kayakers survived a shark attack off Plymouth, when a shark took a large bite out of a kayak, dumping the two women into the water.
A study released in June by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and published the journal PLOS ONE stated that the population of great white sharks has sharply increased since 2000 because of conservation effort, according to the Associated Press.
In the 1975 thriller "Jaws," a giant man-eating great white attacks swimmers and boaters off Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town.
According to National Geographic, great white sharks account for up to half of all shark attack attacks globally, but most of the attacks are not fatal. Researchers have found that while great white sharks do not prey on humans, they often take "sample bites" because they are naturally curious. The sharks usually then release their victims.
Great whites are the largest predatory fish on the planet and can grow to an average of 15 feet long, even though some have exceeded 20 feet. Some great whites have weighed up to 5,000 pounds.
"It came up from underneath my best friend's boat," Ida Parker told
WBZ-TV about the September kayaking incident when the shark attacked them without warning. "It breached out of the water grabbed onto the boat and flipped us both over and took off after that."
The women told the station that luckily a witness on shore called for help as they landed in the water.
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