Divers Encounter Great White Shark One Mile From Florida Coast
A veteran diver and his wife experienced a breathtaking encounter this week when they came face to face with a great white shark in Florida, capturing the entire incident on camera.
John Dickinson has been diving for 40 years, yet had never encountered a great white shark before this week, according to WPTV. Setting out after cobia off the coast of Jupiter, Dickinson was spearfishing with his wife when they encountered the 16-foot-long great white at a depth of roughly 130 feet. Dickinson was just a mile from the Florida shoreline near an area called the Deep Ledges when he spotted the white shark, and luckily, he was equipped with a GoPro to capture the moving encounter.
“To see a great white is just, they’re just so majestic. It was awesome,” he noted.
The interaction between the shark and divers lasted just two minutes, according to WPBF, but felt much longer to Dickinson and his wife. Already a highlight of his diving career, Dickinson asserted that encountering a great white so closely is a nearly indescribable experience.
“When you have an encounter with one it’s something you never forget. I had some people posting ‘Glad it was you not me.’ But I couldn’t be more happy that we were out there and my wife and I got to experience this”
Great White Shark spotted by divers off Jupiter today. See the full video of the encounter at 6pm @WPTV pic.twitter.com/676RX5u2Xm
— Jay Cashmere (@JayCashmere) June 5, 2015
Though some great whites that move through Florida waters are tagged by research groups like Ocearch, Dickinson said that the shark he encountered wasn’t sporting a tracking device. Since the shark hadn’t been named by any organization, he decided to give it the name “Bobbi,” in honor of his wife.
Massachusetts this week announced new regulations to keep beachgoers away from sharks >> http://t.co/IKBxLlqJ0S pic.twitter.com/4TdUA4Xs4W
— Discovery (@Discovery) June 6, 2015
While great white sharks can occasionally be spotted or tracked off Florida, they congregate every summer near Cape Cod. Earlier this week, authorities in Massachusetts issued a set of guidelines designed to protect beachgoers and great whites from each other, specifically prohibiting certain actions around white sharks. With the sharks becoming a notable and growing presence in the area, officials wish to regulate activities like cage diving, chumming, and the use of decoys that are attractive to sharks, lest the predators be drawn too close to populated beaches or recreational boaters. As the Inquisitr previously reported, more than 60 individual great white sharks were documented off Cape Cod last year, and researchers believe there are even more present.
[Photo by John Dickinson via WPBF]
