‘We were amazed by how big it was’: Scary video shows fishermen’s close encounter with an 18ft GREAT WHITE SHARK who stole bait from their boat 30 miles off the coast of New Jersey
- Jeff Crilly, 31, is the captain of the boat Big Nutz Required II
- He and five others sailed 30 miles off the coast of the Jersey Shore on Monday
- While trying to attract a shark using bait, they noticed a great white emerge
- The shark stole a bag of chum and then swam off below surface of Atlantic
A group of fishermen had a close encounter with a great white shark who swam up to a boat and stole a bag of chum off the coast of New Jersey on Monday.
The dramatic video posted to social media shows a massive great white swim up against the stern of a 31-foot Bertram sport boat as it was sailing 30 miles from Manasquan Inlet.
The scene was reminiscent of the Steven Spielberg film Jaws.
A group of fisherman who sailed 30 miles off the coast of the Jersey Shore filmed a great white shark which swam up to their boat on Monday
The great white took a large bag of chum before swimming back underneath the surface
The captain of the boat estimated that the length of the shark was between 16 and 18ft
Jeff Crilly, the captain of Big Nutz Required II, estimated that the shark weighs some 2,000 pounds
‘We’ve fished for sharks a lot and never seen anything like that,’ the boat’s captain, Jeff Crilly, told the Asbury Park Press.
‘We were amazed by how big it was.’
Crilly, 31, is the owner of Big Nutz Required II. He estimates that the length of the shark was more than half the size of the boat.
‘It was harder to guess the weight because we had nothing to compare it to, but it was probably about 2,000 pounds,’ Crilly said.
Crilly, a native of Toms River, and five others on the boat were taking part in a recreational mako shark tournament, where fishermen use bait to try and attract sharks before hooking them.
They used several types of bait, including the body of a small tuna drifting on a rope as well as the bag of chum.
Crilly said that once the shark came to the surface, it was not hooked. The animal swam off on its own power and never returned.
The remarkable encounter took place in the part of the Atlantic Ocean which has a depth of 110 feet.
Experts say it is rare for a great white shark to be seen off the coast of New Jersey, even though the population of this particular species is on the rise.