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Great White Shark Leaps From Cape Cod Surf, Attacking Seal [Video]

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 13:45 PST, Aug 17, 2015

Researchers working off Cape Cod captured extraordinary footage on Monday of a great white shark leaping out of the ocean as it attempted to prey on a wayward seal just a few hundred feet from the coast.

The video was captured by a research team from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy while they were working to document the local great white population near Chatham. According to the conservancy, Dr. Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries captured the footage off Monomoy, where just this weekend the group’s spotter pilot, Wayne Davis, photographed a successful white shark predation, as the Inquisitr previously reported.

The footage depicts a stunning white shark breach as the predator attempts to chase a terrified seal. The smaller animal can be seen leaping from the water first, followed closely by the great white shark. Seals represent a primary food source for the sharks and one of the driving reasons that the great whites congregate off the Massachusetts shoreline each summer.

Filming the white shark’s near miss is hardly the only thing the researchers accomplished on their voyage Monday. According to WCVB, the team also photographed a successful predation attempt on a seal, while Dr. Skomal was able to tag two 12-foot-long white sharks.

Last week, authorities in Cape Cod closed several beaches after a white shark was spotted preying upon a seal just a few hundred feet from a popular swimming beach. As the Boston Globe noted, the shark released the seal, “spitting it out” after the attack, and the animal was able to make it to the beach before dying. Both Nauset Light beach and nearby Coast Guard beach were closed following the predation event. A similar incident took place in early August, closing Coast Guard beach when a great white shark was spotted devouring a seal just 20 yards from a group of surfers, who quickly fled the water.

Last year, researchers were able to identify 68 different great white sharks in the region, tagging 18. Cynthia Wigren, president of the conservancy, recently noted that shark activity in the area appears to have increased from last year, meaning Cape Cod beachgoers will have no lack of opportunities to view the region’s itinerant great white sharks in the coming months.

[Photo by Dr. Greg Skomal via YouTube/ Atlantic White Shark Conservancy]

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