When Dale Pearson saw a large figure thrashing around in shallow waters near his house in the town of Puertecitos in Baja California, Mexico, last month, he thought it would be a beached whale or struggling hammerhead shark, known to frequent the area.
He grabbed his camera phone and a friend with plans to save the struggling animal, but as they waded closer to the scene, they realized they were facing a much more powerful creature: A great white shark.
The shark appeared to be an estimated 14 feet long and was moving around in 3 feet of water, according to Pearson, a dive boat operator who has experience with shark research missions.
“It would come in to the shallows and lay there motionless, then it would move out again [swimming to] six feet of water, circle back in [to the shallows], come into another spot and lay there motionless,” Pearson told HuffPost.
As seen in the full video below, Pearson and his friend reacted like any normal adult would when faced with a great white shark ― with awe and a whole lot of F-bombs.
“That’s a f****** white shark,” Pearson says in the video. “Holy s***!”
After filming their encounter, Pearson uploaded the video to his company’s Facebook page, Pearson Brothers Winery, where it went viral.
Warning: The language in the video is explicit.
Pearson was able to position himself mere yards away from the shark, but he made sure to stay at a water level that would be too shallow for the shark to reach. He also made sure to stay behind the shark, knowing that it is very difficult for large sharks to move or swim backwards.
As seen in the video, the shark had a large open wound just behind its dorsal fin. Pearson explains in the video that the wound was likely caused by a strike from a boat propeller.
After watching the video, officials at the Marine Conservation Science Institute shared it on their Facebook page, explaining that “the injuries from the boat propeller would likely not kill the shark.”
“They are exceptionally tough with incredible healing ability,” the institute wrote this week in a post.
Pearson believes that the shark ventured in to the shallow waters in order to hunt for stingrays. Mark Domeier, marine biologist and president of the institute, agreed.
“White sharks are generalists (and scavengers) when it comes to diet,” Domeier wrote on Facebook. “In other words they will eat whatever they want at that moment!”
(Photo: Dale Pearson)
Pearson and his friend weren’t injured by the large shark during their venture, but they say they were attacked by stingrays. As seen in the video, Pearson’s friend limps out of the water after being stung. Peterson shared a clip of their bloody wounds at the very end.
According to Pearson, the shark wasn’t stuck, and swam in and out of the shallow water several times. The following day, it was nowhere to be found.
Pearson also offered a message to any curious locals in Baja California: “If you’re wondering if there’s great white sharks here in the Sea of Cortez the answer is absolutely.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified Dale Pearson as Dale Peterson.
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A shark swims in a tank at the New York Aquarium on August 7, 2001 in Coney Island, New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A June 11, 2009 file photo provided by Elasmodiver shows scientist Eric Hoffmayer of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs, Miss., taking fin measurements of a whale shark in the Gulf of Mexico, about 55 miles off the Louisiana coast. Hoffmayer says whale sharks, the world's biggest fish, are particularly vulnerable if they get into the oil slick. That's because, rather than moving up to the surface and down again, they eat by swimming along the surface, sucking in plankton, fish eggs and small fish. (AP Photo/Elasmodiver, Andy Murch, File)
Home And Away actor Jon Sivewright launches the new Adventure experience Grey Nurse Shark Feed Dive at Manly's Ocean World on December 18, 2006 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Patrick Riviere/Getty Images)
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A shark swims in a tank at the New York Aquarium August 7, 2001 in Coney Island, New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A shark swim inside a fish tank as a diver, left, cleans the glass at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug 31, 2011. The Two Oceans Aquarium hosts group activities for school children and students which include the identification and observation of fish and other species. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
In this handout picture released by Awashima Marine Park, a 1.6 meter long Frill shark swims in a tank after being found by a fisherman at a bay in Numazu, on January 21, 2007 in Numazu, Japan. The frill shark, also known as a Frilled shark usually lives in waters of a depth of 600 meters and so it is very rare that this shark is found alive at sea-level. Its body shape and the number of gill are similar to fossils of sharks which lived 350,000,000 years ago. (Photo by Awashima Marine Park/Getty Images)
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This undated photo released by The Galapagos National Park of Ecuador shows a diver alongside a whale shark in the Galapagos Island, Ecuador. (AP Photo/The Galapagos National Park of Ecuador)
Blacktip reef shark
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A blacktip reef shark
A blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) swims in the aquarium of the Haus des Meeres ('House of the Sea') in Vienna on June 27, 2012. (ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images)
Bonnethead shark
A Bonnethead shark swims at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, on April 26, 2012.The Aquarium features a collection of over 11,000 animals representing over 500 different species. It focuses on the Pacific Ocean in three major permanent galleries, sunny Southern California and Baja, the frigid waters of the Northern Pacific and the colorful reefs of the Tropical Pacific.The non-profit Aquarium sees 1.5 million visitors a year and has a total staff of over 900 people including more than 300 employees and about 650 volunteers. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GettyImages)
Blacktip reef shark
A blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus swims in the aquarium of the Haus des Meeres in Vienna on June 27, 2012. (ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images)
A blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus mela
A blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) swims in the aquarium of the Haus des Meeres ('House of the Sea') in Vienna on June 27, 2012. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER KLEIN (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/GettyImages)
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