--- title: Great White Shark Leaps From Water to Snatch Fish Off Line description: A little boy who was fishing off the coast of Cape Cod is OK after almost being hit by the tail of a shark that leapt out of the water canonical: https://time.com/5631603/great-white-shark-encounter/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-22T15:46:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:38.536Z og:title: Little Boy Is OK After Great White Shark Lunges at Him og:description: “It had come up and it lunged out of the water" og:url: https://time.com/5631603/great-white-shark-encounter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7840d44f25044600/698a003fe76ad2de9e6362a8/screen-shot-2019-07-22-at-11.19.37-am.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Great-White-Shark-Leaps-Out-of-Water og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Little Boy Is OK After Great White Shark Lunges at Him twitter:description: “It had come up and it lunged out of the water" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7840d44f25044600/698a003fe76ad2de9e6362a8/screen-shot-2019-07-22-at-11.19.37-am.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Little Boy Is OK After Fish-Stealing Great White Shark Leaps at Him to Steal Fresh Caught Fish  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 22, 2019 3:46 PM CUT  Doug Nelson  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 22, 2019 3:46 PM CUT A little boy who was fishing off the coast of [Cape Cod](https://time.com/5238792/yarmouth-police-officer-shot-killed-warrant-cape-cod/ "undefined") is OK after almost being hit by the tail of a [great white shark](https://time.com/5506590/great-white-shark-hawaii-coast/ "undefined") that leapt out of the water to snatch a fish off a line. In a video captured by another passenger on the [Columbia Sportfishing](http://www.columbiasportfishing.net/ "undefined") ship, the shark can be seen breaching the water to steal a bass being reeled back into the boat. The [shark’s tail](https://time.com/4800792/how-sharks-became-so-scary/ "undefined") then almost smacks the boy as it dives back down into the water. Everyone onboard the ship appeared to be visibly shaken by the encounter. “It had come up and it lunged out of the water and bit the fish, meanwhile swinging its tail up and out of the water,” captain Marc Costa told the[ Boston Herald](https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/07/20/viral-video-great-white-shark-leaps-at-cape-cod-fishing-boat/ "undefined"). “The shark bit the fish in half, and he took it off the line.” Cape Cod has become a hot spot for great white sharks in recent years with the area seeing its [first shark fatality in 82 years](https://www.wsj.com/articles/cape-cod-looks-for-ways-to-keep-sharks-away-11556789423 "undefined") last September. Costa told the Boston Herald that he has had encounters with sharks before but never one like this. “There have been some close takes … but nothing as acrobatic as that,” said Costa. Watch the video below. > [](https://twitter.com/A%5FWhiteShark/status/1152686786608603138) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5631603/great-white-shark-encounter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5631603/great-white-shark-encounter/"},"headline":"Little Boy Is OK After Fish-Stealing Great White Shark Leaps at Him to Steal Fresh Caught Fish","datePublished":"2019-07-22T15:46:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:38.536Z","description":"“It had come up and it lunged out of the water\"","url":"https://time.com/5631603/great-white-shark-encounter/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sharks","animals","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7840d44f25044600/698a003fe76ad2de9e6362a8/screen-shot-2019-07-22-at-11.19.37-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7840d44f25044600/698a003fe76ad2de9e6362a8/screen-shot-2019-07-22-at-11.19.37-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Great-White-Shark-Leaps-Out-of-Water","caption":"","creditText":"Doug Nelson","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5631603/great-white-shark-encounter/","name":"Little Boy Is OK After Fish-Stealing Great White Shark Leaps at Him to Steal Fresh Caught Fish"}}]}] ```