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12-foot-long great white shark spotted off New Jersey coast

SEA ISLE CITY, N..J. — A fisherman has had an encounter he probably won’t forget for a long time.

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The angler spotted a shark that was estimated at 12 feet long and about 1,000 pounds near his boat, less than a mile from the coast of Sea Isle City, New Jersey, KYW reported.

A video of the shark sighting was shared on social media.

Jim Piazza, the man who shared the video, is used to seeing small sharks as he has fished in the area for years. He’s also caught a couple of sand sharks. But seeing the great white was something unexpected.

“The videos don’t do it justice,” Piazza told NJ.com. “It was just nonchalantly there.”

Piazza, who is from Media, Pennsylvania, had been fishing with his son and a friend. The crew was heading back to their rented vacation home when one of them saw the shark and said, “Shark, watch out,” NJ.com reported.

Shark experts told KYW it’s not unusual to see great white sharks off the coast in the Northeast and that the predators are migrating this time of the year.