June 08, 2023
Laura Stanley/Pexels.com
Fisherman Mike Cavallo had an unexpected encounter with a great white shark near the coast of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. The photo above is a stock image.
A fishing trip at the Jersey Shore this week brought a YouTuber up close with a great white shark that attempted to snag a black sea bass off his hook.
Mike Cavallo was off the coast of Point Pleasant on Tuesday with his daughter and others when his GoPro camera captured the shark swimming up to their charter boat. The shark wasn't able to get the sea bass and swam off under the boat.
Cavallo has a YouTube channel, M & K Outdoors, that shares highlights from his fishing trips with his daughter. He posted the video there and it was later picked up by 6ABC, which interviewed Cavallo about the experience.
"Within five minutes of me turning the camera on, that's when the shark showed up," Cavallo said, explaining that he was excited and not afraid.
A shark researcher from Massachusetts confirmed that the shark in the video is a juvenile great white measuring 8 to 9 feet long, Cavallo said.
The fisherman said he and his daughter are shark enthusiasts that follow the movements of sharks tracked by OCEARCH, the nonprofit research organization that tags sharks to study their behaviors.
This time of year, great white sharks migrate north in the Atlantic on their way to Nova Scotia. On Memorial Day, OCEARCH tracked a 522-pound juvenile great white shark off the coast of Ocean City.
Last summer, another Jersey Shore fisherman encountered a great white off the coast of Sea Isle City and captured a video of the shark, which he said appeared to be docile. Sharks rarely attack humans if they are not provoked.
Great white shark populations have been recovering in the Atlantic Ocean after four decades of declining numbers due to overfishing.
Cavallo said that in addition to the video of the shark, he also reeled in the black sea bass.
