A kayaker’s first time out nearly became his last after a close encounter with a Great White shark.
Walter Szulc, Jr. was among the last to notice that beachgoers at Nauset beach in Orleans, Mass. were fleeing the ocean Saturday after a 12- to 14-foot Great White was spotted in the surf, WHDH-TV reported.
He told the station that before arriving at the beach he had teased his daughter about her fear of sharks. But in a scene reminiscent of the movie “Jaws,” witnesses said they saw the shark’s dorsal fin trailing Szulc by about 10 feet, according to reports.
Szulc told WHDH-TV that he had no idea that people were screaming “shark.”
“So I looked behind me and that's when I saw the shark, it was pretty much right there, I got a glimpse of it. It was a good size and it had a fin sticking out, so I just turned and paddled,” Szulc told the TV station.
The first time kayaker paddled to safety and the beach was closed for the rest of the day. The beach reopened on Sunday without incident or shark sightings, according to Boston.com.
The close encounter Saturday came on the heels of recent sightings of at least two Great White sharks off Cape Cod, an area that has drawn an abundance of seals, MSNBC reported.
