I came face to face with 15ft great white shark – I feared for my life

A DIVER has shared the terrifying moment he feared for his life after coming face to face with a 15ft great white shark.

Photographer Deron Verbeck went diving off Hawaii’s Keahole Point when he came across the predator- which he initially thought it a school of ulua fish.

4

4

But as the beast approached him, he soon realised it was a great white shark.

He told KHON2 News: “I kept looking at the head, I’m like, ‘that is not a tiger shark,’ and it got closer and closer.

“It just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I was like, ‘that is for sure 100% a great white.”

He also said that although the sight left him “shaking” he noticed the shark was not behaving in a threatening way.

He added: “And I just shot as much as I could as she went by, and she just disappeared back off the drop, then I was just shaking like, ‘woah! That was insane!’

“If she wanted to take me she would have taken me.

“Her demeanour was just curiosity.

“She just came up to look what I was doing.”

The diver later shared a snap of the great white on social media and wrote: “Well check this one off the list of things ‘I have and probably shouldn’t have been swimming with’.

“My first ever GREAT WHITE SHARK!!! And it happen to be in Kona and a 5 min drive from my house!!!”

Hawaii is home to over 40 different species of sharks, from the tiny deep-water pygmy shark to the massive whale shark that can reach 50ft.

The most common ones are the white-tip reef shark, the sandbar shark, the scalloped hammerhead and the terrifying tiger shark.

There have been seven recorded attacks in the past year, four of them coming from tiger sharks.

In 2020 there were six recorded shark attacks with one being fatal.

The number of attacks has risen across the world over the past years as swimmers continue to ignore bloodbath warning signs.

It is estimated that over 800 people have been mauled in just nine years.

A whopping 791 shark attacks have been reported between 2010 and 2019, according to data published by the International Shark Attack File, with an annual global average of 80 bites.

Surfers and water sports lovers seem to be the prime targets, accounting for 61 per cent of victims last year.

It comes after last month a surfer shared how he lost his leg in a horrific tiger shark attack off Kauai, Hawaii.

Mike Coots has since become a shark conservationist and regularly dives with the beasts in international hotspots to raise awareness.

4

4