Fisherman, all alone, encounters great white shark off NJ shore

Let’s just say a New Jersey guy by the name of Travis Bogin is a lot closer to “Jaws”’ Quint than he is to Chief Brody. He’s not a coward when it comes to sharks. In fact, he goes out looking for them.

He’s 39, from Toms River, and a few days ago he went out alone 12 miles off the shore of Atlantic City to fish for thresher sharks. With a line in the water from his 21-foot Proline boat, he caught a shark.

But it wasn’t the generally shy and docile thresher. It was a white. As in great white.

He didn’t know this at first of course. Bogin fought with whatever it was for about 10 minutes until it finally tired out and to his surprise he pulled up from the water a 5 1/2 foot great white shark. That would be a baby. Eventually, it could grow four times that length. As long or longer than the very boat he was on. (Should I? OK. You’re gonna need a bigger boat.)

Bogin was shocked and he made a brief recording of his encounter.

"I was stunned and excited. I had all these thoughts going through my head because it's still just a rare thing to see one up that close," Bogin told APP.com.

Great whites are federally protected, so naturally, Bogin released it, never even taking it out of the water. Yet a thrilling encounter nonetheless.

According to APP.com the odds of being attacked by a shark are incredibly low at 1 in 11.5 million. Compare that to your lifetime odds of being struck by lightning at 1 in 15 thousand. Or odds of dying by dog attack at 1 in 53 thousand.

Yet a shark attack feels so viscerally terrifying that all it takes is hearing one or two stories to make you feel it’s much more likely than the reality.

It doesn’t help our irrational fears that there’s been a resurgence of great white sharks along the East Coast. Six years ago a swimmer was fatally attacked off Cape Cod and four years ago one was killed by a shark in Maine. Last year here in New Jersey a 15-year-old girl was attacked surfing off Stone Harbor but survived.

Try to remember, though, you’re in far more danger in Parkway traffic heading towards the shore than you are once you get in the water.