16-05-2025
Surprise great white shark encounter has divers yelling into masks
Surprise great white shark encounter has divers yelling into masks
When a large and heavily scarred great white shark confronted divers at an Indonesian island in March, they were in awe and understandably concerned for their safety.
After all, white shark sightings are extremely rare in the region, and the battle-worn predator turning to approach them was not what they expected.
'This is beyond the holy grail of diving,' Fabian Clinton, a Swedish divemaster, recalled via Instagram. 'A huge great white shark passed us and then turned on us on one of the local dive sites in Penida today. Front seat with my shaky gopro. Amazing and scary as ... "
The unlikely encounter occurred at Nusa Penida, an island off Bali. In Clinton's footage viewers can hear the divers yelling into their masks, expressing their astonishment. (Swipe through Clinton's post for the video.)
Clinton described the encounter to Dive Magazine as 'One in a million… getting close to the greatest.'
Clinton shared a different version of the footage this week, with music drowning out reactions of the other divers, stating: 'Two months has passed since we had the luckiest and most unexpected encounters in our lives, with a Great White at Nusa Penida Island. Not a day goes by without thinking about her, still.'
He added that a great white shark, perhaps the same large female, was spotted two weeks after his group's encounter, but at a different spot.
Dive Magazine reports that the first documented white shark sighting at Nusa Penida occurred in September 2019 near Crystal Bay.
