Two college students celebrating the Fourth of July in Cape Cod got the surprise of their lives when a great white shark appeared just feet away from their paddleboards.
Margaret Bowles, a Harvard student, and Maddie Cronin, who studies at the University of Toronto, were paddling near Woods Hole on the southwest tip of Cape Cod when they spotted a shark’s dorsal fin, estimated to be around eight inches tall, slicing through the water beside them.
Cronin had been filming Bowles splashing playfully when the fin emerged. In the video obtained by WHDH, Bowles can be heard exclaiming “Oh,” as she quickly jumped onto her board in shock.
“We weren’t even sure at first what we saw,” Bowles said. “We had to look back at the photos and video to believe it.”
One photo captured the moment vividly, Bowles frozen in fear, just feet away from the fin breaching the water near Cronin’s board.
“I see this big fin pop up next to her, it’s like eight inches out of the water, sort of fleshy, gray, and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s a shark, we’ve got to go,’” Bowles recalled.
Though she had taught marine biology and swum in those very waters before, Bowles admitted she never believed great white sharks ventured into Woods Hole. “I always told my friends, ‘There are no sharks here.’ I couldn’t believe it myself.”
The duo kept their composure and paddled calmly back to shore. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries later confirmed their close encounter was, indeed, with a great white shark, the first confirmed sighting in the Buzzards Bay area since 2004, per Cape and Islands.
Despite the fright, the students kept a sense of humor about the ordeal. They nicknamed the shark “Steve,” joking that he must’ve taken a wrong turn and was “just stopping for directions.”
Far from being scared off, Bowles has already returned to the ocean. “I love the ocean. What happened was incredibly unlikely,” she said, though she added she’s temporarily avoiding wearing her wetsuit in the water, according to the New York Post. “That seems unadvisable at the time. Hopefully Steve moves on, and I’ll get right back to it.”
Shark expert Greg Skomal of the Division of Marine Fisheries said that while great whites are more common along the Outer Cape, it’s not unheard of for them to occasionally enter Buzzards Bay. “If you see a shark, don’t panic,” Skomal advised. “The chance of being bitten is extremely low. Just move away calmly and avoid any interaction.”
For Bowles and Cronin, their unforgettable shark encounter has become a story of awe, and one wild summer memory they won’t soon forget.