It was a close encounter of the fin-to-face kind for a group of startled fishermen on a charter boat in Maine last month.
A 7-foot mako shark dropped in for a visit on the deck of the boat after launching itself out of the water while hooked on a line in a wild scene caught on video.
Dave Sinclair of Sea Ventures Charters and his grandson, Cameron, were on an excursion with a group of young fishermen off the coast of Monhegan, Maine, last month when the encounter occurred.
Sinclair and his grandson tag sharks for research and release them, and they got an up-close look at a mako shark that they didn't expect so soon. The moment was captured on video by passenger Chris Kingsbury.
The mako initially launched itself out of the ocean from a distance, drawing awed sounds and some expletives from those onboard. However, its next leap was right into the boat and into Cameron's head.
"And then all of a sudden, there he was in my face, and I feel him hit the side of my face with his tail," he told NBC affiliate NECN. "And then he landed on my right foot and I kind of jumped out of the way."
Sinclair thought he had seen it all in his decades at sea, but this was "the frosting on the cake."
"My first thoughts were injuries," Sinclair told NECN. "We had a boat full of young guys and one young gentleman was fighting the fish."
Sinclair and his grandson removed the hook from the mako's mouth, measured it, tagged it and pushed it back into the ocean. No one suffered any injuries.
"You kind of feel like, ‘There’s no way this is happening,'" Cameron said. "I don’t think I’m ever going to be that surprised again.”