Terrifying moment a great white shark jumps out of the water next to a fisherman who accidentally caught it on his fishing hook while kayaking in Canada

Footage shows the terrifying moment when a striped bass fisherman held on to more than he bargained for – a huge white fish measuring six to eight feet.

The encounter took place in Canada this weekend and was captured on camera by Nova Scotia fisherman Rick Austin.

Austin remembered how he was fishing in the Minas Basin of the Maritime Province when he encountered the apex predator, which jumps several feet out of the water once hooked.

The video also shows how the fishermen mistook the deadly fish for a protected porpoise and eventually let it go.

Scientists have since confirmed that the animal was a great white shark, which is historically rare in the region but increasingly common in terms of sightings. Posted to Austin’s Facebook, the clip shows the creepy encounter in full.

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‘She’s quite big. Yes, she’s quite big,’ the seasoned bass fisherman can be heard saying from his head-mounted camera as he reels in the beast, unbeknownst to the fact that it was a great white.

The man then struggles against the creature’s weight for several seconds, which was later confirmed by biologists to be somewhere between 200 and 250 pounds.

Austin then catches a glimpse of the animal – still underwater at this point – as it is pulled closer to the boat. He immediately notices the enormous size of the man-eater.

“Oh my God,” he exclaims over the still-shelled sea creature. “O Jesus Christ.”

Austin is audibly anxious and then talks out loud so his camera can capture his thought process.

“Holy liftin’!” he exclaims, using the exclamation of surprise to describe his anxious state of mind at the time.

“Seriously folks, I caught a glimpse of that thing. That thing is huge,” he adds.

Despite these reservations, Austin continues to try to reel in the beast – urging it to launch itself, albeit briefly, out of the water.

It only takes a second and you watch the animal get several feet of air as it fights against the fisherman’s outstretched line.

At this point, the shark’s impressive size is on display – something Austin also notices before mistaking the animal for a harbor porpoise, which is legally protected in Canadian waters.

Although similar in appearance to dolphins – as well as great whites – the creatures are mammals and more closely related to narwhals and belugas. They are not considered a threat to humans.

Austin, a veteran, quickly processes this and lets the animal go.

Afterwards, the outdoorsman had his doubts, so he took to social media to ask members of Nova Scotia’s fishing community what they thought of the encounter — and posted the footage as evidence.

He says days later he received confirmation from biologists at the New England Aquarium and the University of Guelph’s Department of Integrative Biology that the animal was in fact a great white, which he suspected but ultimately rejected, likely due to the volatile nature of the animal. animal. nature in the region.

According to Austin, the scientists estimate the shark is between 6 and 8 feet long and weighs anywhere from 200 to 250 pounds.

While somewhat surprising – given that there were only 32 recorded sightings off Canada’s east coast until 2006 – the encounter isn’t entirely common.

Since then, great whites — mostly found in the southern coastal waters of South Africa and Australia — have migrated increasingly northward, with coasts along Canada and even the US emerging as new hotspots.

With this, shark attacks are also increasing, albeit minutely.

Currently, the animals attack humans about five to 10 times a year across the country, though they often just take a “sample bite” out of curiosity, often seen on surfers.

For striped bass fishing in Nova Scotia – one of the most common pastimes in marine waters – this is both good and bad news, as attacks are still uncommon.

In 2020, a 21-year-old woman was bitten near the coast of Cape Breton, Canada, and survived. The attacks marked the first time since the 19th century that someone had been attacked by a great white shark off the coast of Canada.

That said, while the fish seen in Austin footage was huge, great whites — actually a type of mako shark — can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh two tons, meaning the animal Austin hooked was a juvenile used to be.

Still, the fish is said to have up to 300 razor-sharp serrated teeth arranged in rows in its giant jaws to hunt prey, and can swim up to 35 mph.

Fortunately, they normally feast on seals, sea lions and dolphins, but they can confuse people in wetsuits with what they naturally eat and bite.

Responding to a comment also mistaking the animal as a porpoise, Austin said, “I thought it was or a dolphin lol.”

“I’m actually glad I didn’t know what it really was, otherwise I’d have soiled myself.”

Not categorized as endangered but still in danger of extinction, great whites can live up to 70 years.