Great white shark attacks boat's trolling motor off Panama City Beach

A charter fishing boat captain got the surprise of a lifetime this week when a great white shark attacked his boat's trolling motor off the coast of Panama City Beach.

Capt. Scott Fitzgerald of Madfish Charters said he was fishing for amberjack about 8.5 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico Monday when the 10-foot shark bit his trolling motor.

Fitzgerald said the shark circled his boat a few times and was clearly interested in the motor. Fitzgerald captured footage with his cell phone that has gone viral on Facebook and other media outlets. That video is embedded below.

"He knocked the boat two feet to the side, then grabbed the trolling motor and started shaking it in his mouth," Fitzgerald told the Pensacola News Journal. "That's when I ran up front and pulled it out of his mouth."

The motor sustained several scratches and bite marks, but otherwise there was no major damage to Fitzgerald's 22-foot boat.

Fitzgerald said officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission watched his videos and confirmed the animal was a white shark, commonly called a "great white," though that's not the actual name of the species.

Tagged white sharks were tracked in the Gulf of Mexico last year, though sightings are rare. There has never been a confirmed, unprovoked attack on a human by a white shark in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File.

Fitzgerald's video is embedded below. For those wondering it looks like when a white shark attacks an inanimate object, last year the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution released this video from an underwater robot that was bitten multiple times, with multiple camera angles.

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