A surfer has luckily cheated death after a terrifying close encounter with a great white shark.
Devon Zimmerman, 30, was surfing on Cape Cod, off Nauset Beach, in Massachusetts, when he looked over his shoulder and thought he spotted a seal emerging the water just a few feet away.
But soon he realised it was a dorsal fin from a great white shark, he lifted his feet out of the water and 'froze'.
He told the New York Daily: "I was like 'Oh my God,' this thing's real - and it's between me and and the beach. I utterly froze."
The moment was captured by photographer Joe Mault, who was hoping to snap some photographs of the waves kicked up by Storm Humberto.
Joe shouted a warning to Devon and told him to swim back to shore.
Devon then hurried back to shore unscathed. He recalled the incident and told WCVB : "I don't want to splash that much to bring too much attention but I also need to very fast.
"I'm still pounding, I don't think I am calm and collected yet."
Luckily the shark swam away towards the open sea and did not attack Devon.
His wife Sarah McAteer saw the picture Joe captured and said: "[The photo] made me nauseous, really.
"It made my sick to my stomach when I saw it."
The pictures are now being shared with the Orleans Department of Public Works and Natural Resources as a warning to beachgoers that it's peak great white seaon.
Devon told the news outlet that he recalled the encounter when he and Sarah drove up to Maine and he kept saying to himself that 'it was just so big'.
He added: "You don't actually get a sense of its scale.
"It's just an awesome animal in sort of the most terrifying way."
