Discovery's Shark Week is here, and starting on July 11, we can expect 45 hours of shark-centric programming through Sunday, July 18. Shows will include Return to Lair of the Great White, Extinct or Alive: Jaws of Alaska, and Brad Paisley's Shark Country. Shark Week's lineup will also feature additional celebrities, including Tiffany Haddish, Tara Reid, and Robert Irwin, who will be taking on a great white for the first time.
In anticipation of this year’s Shark Week, we’ve compiled a gallery of the close encounters people have had with sharks. From the terrifying to the surprising.
New Smyrna Beach, Florida
This near-encounter was thwarted by a drone manned by professional photographer, Dan Watson.
Watson and his wife had gone to the beach with their children and friends for a day of fun and relaxation. Before packing up to leave, Watson decided to take the drone out for a spin. That's how he spotted shark was making its way towards the five children in the water, three of which were his.
Watson shouted that there was a shark and the kids immediately ran to shore. Watson noted that there was no visible fin and it was nearly impossible to spot the predator from his location on shore.
New Smyrna Beach has seen a lot of shark action this year. A week after Watson captured the footage, a shark bit a surfer's foot in the same area at New Smyrna and in April, another person was bitten, too.
Jersey Shore Coast, NJ
New Jersey fisherman Jeff Crilly and friends got SUPER up close and personal with a 16-foot great white shark when it came up to Crilly's boat and chomped on the bag of bait the group was using.
The incredible footage shows the shark in vivid detail—teeth and all—as it tears the bait away from the boat and then swims away.
New Brighton State Beach, California
More drone footage out of California captured the insanely close proximity between this swimmer and shark beneath the surface. The drone operator told WPTV that the shark seemed to "be minding its own business."
South Australia
This close encounter comes from South Australia where police where doing a routine patrol when a Great White began tailing their dinghy.
The shark was longer than the nearly 15-foot boat and thankfully left the officers alone.
Off the Coast of Hawaii
Ocean Ramsey, a marine biologist, swam in open waters next to this massive 20-foot long Great White, thought to currently be the largest shark of its kind in the world.
Ramsey, who has dedicated her life to the conservation of the species, told TODAY that she was overwhelmed with emotions and that the experience "took her breath away."
Ramsey also noted that the apex predator was incredibly wide and posited that the Great White may have been pregnant. Ramsey and team believe the shark is around 50 years old and estimate that it weighs approximately 2.5 tons.
Captiva Island, Florida
"Shark wrestler," Elliot Sudal caught a massive Tiger Shark on April 29, 2019. The giant shark was Sudal's largest catch to date measuring in at nearly 7-feet wide and just over 13-feet long.
Sudal and a friend were out on the water for more than 25-hours without a single bite before the Tiger Shark caught his line. Sudal tagged the shark and took blood samples for research before setting it free.
South Africa
Back in 2015 during the World Surf League in South Africa, Australian surfer Mick Fanning was attacked by a shark from behind.
The terrifying video shows the moment the shark's fin breaches the surface and Fanning realizes what's happening. After a brief struggle in which Fanning punched the shark in the back, a rescue team arrives to safely escort the shaken surfer back to shore.
Incredibly, Fanning sustained zero injuries though he admitted he was shaken by the encounter.
Guadalupe Island, Mexico
This surreal footage looks like something straight out of Jaws. Here, a Great White breaches a cage with a diver in it trying to get to the chunks of tuna that were hanging near the cage.
The tourist inside the cage was Chan Ming, an advertising executive, who told the New York Times that he wasn't scared and got back into the water the next day."
Florida
Captain Ben Chancey was fishing from a kayak when a shark tried to steal his catch and flipped his kayak. Chancey, unharmed, swam to safety and then decided it would be a good idea to get back in the water moments after being flipped. Why, you might ask? To catch the shark that flipped him.
A stroke of dumb luck saw Chancey catch the shark, which he reeled in for photos before releasing it.
Cape Cod Bay, MA
It's no surprise that sharks roam the Cape Cod Bay—over 100 have been seen in the area this year alone. What was a surprise was the Great White that leapt towards a fishing boat on July 20, 2019 while it was on an excursion.
The shark breached the water to snag the striped bass that one of the people on board had caught. During its attempt to catch a snack, the shark almost almost hit a young boy with its tail fin. The footage is wild—you have to see it for yourself.
In the Deep
Researchers with OceanX were stunned to come up close and personal with a massive bluntnose sixgill shark–sometimes called a cow shark—which predates most dinosaurs and is reaching the near-threatened threshold per the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The incredible footage shows beautifully detailed closeups of the the shark's mouth and a spectacular look directly into one of its eyes.
According to OceanX, they were able "achieve history, tagging an animal from a submersible (submarine) for the first time EVER," although the shark in the video is not the bluntnose sixgill they tagged.
Super Bowl XLIX, Arizona
Bonus mention: Left Shark.
Katy Perry's Super Bowl performance back in 2015 birthed the infamous shark that spawned a thousand memes. Left Shark became a cultural icon with his out-of-sync dancing and sad face.
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