A family fishing in Cape Cod Bay had a close encounter with a great white shark as it breached the water’s surface to snag a fish they were reeling in.

Doug Nelson, of Franklin, Mass., who managed to catch it all on video, told New England Cable News it “gave us a pretty good scare.”

In the video, his son Jack can be seen jumping back as the shark leaps up, according to WCVB-TV. They were both part of a chartered fishing trip in Cape Cod Bay on Saturday while they were aboard the Columbia, an Orleans-based sport fishing vessel.

The species was confirmed as a great white shark by both the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) and the ship’s captain Marc Costa.

The captain told The Associated Press that the encounter happened when his ship was approximately five kilometres off of Great Island in Wellfleet, Mass.

"That animal came up and grabbed the fish, right there. Right in our faces," Costa told WCVB-TV. “It actually slapped the boat with its tail.”

The AWSC shared the video on its Twitter account and told CTVNews.ca that it was one of several that had been spotted in the past two days, according to its app.

According to a Facebook post from the Provincetown Police Department, Costa said people aboard another sport-fishing vessel had seen a shark also leap out of the water 10 days prior.

Police warned that “sharks are continually spotted in the waters off Cape Cod as they prey upon seals in the area. Several groups keep close eye on the activity to keep people safe.”

With a file from The Associated Press