‘Holy smokes, that thing is huge dude!’ Cape Cod charter boat gets up close with shark off Wellfleet

CAPE COD BAY, Mass. — A family visiting from Iowa has quite a story to return home with after a charter boat trip off Cape Cod.

The family was out for a day of fishing and learning about how locals catch a lobster when a large great white shark caught their eye.

In a video posted to Facebook by Billingsgate Charters, you can hear first mate Eric Schoon describing what they were seeing.

‘Holy smokes, that thing is huge dude!’ said Schoon. “That’s like 15 feet! That thing is enormous.”

The owner of Billingsgate Charters, David Stamatis, tells Boston 25 the adventure happened on Monday about four miles off the coast of Wellfleet in about 60 feet of water in Cape Cod Bay.

Stamatis says he had about four shark encounters last year, and this was the first of the season this year. He says it was also the earliest he’s spotted a white shark, saying July is when sightings really heat up.

He says he was about to pull up a lobster trap with the family from Iowa when the shark approached nearby. Stamatis says there has been an increase in “buoy bites,” when sharks apparently mistake lobster buoys for food.

David Stamatis is a certified charter captain and lobster fisherman.

The family from Iowa included a dad and five children, who now have quite the story to share for Father’s Day.

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