NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • July 14, 2025
As soon as National Geographic Explorer and photographer Brian Skerry locked eyes with the enormous animal, he knew immediately what was staring back at him. “There’s no mistaking that face,” he says. A nearly 10-foot long great white shark was just four feet away. Sharks tagged with tracking devices have been documented off the U.S. coast of Maine, but Skerry thinks this is the first underwater photo of one here. Once rare, great whites are now flourishing in the Gulf of Maine, which stretches from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Nova Scotia, Canada. While these growing numbers might make it easier to see or photograph a shark in nearby waters, experts say the risk of being bitten by a great white remains low.