Great white shark leaps from water to snatch fish off line in Cape Cod Bay

ORLEANS, Mass. -- A family fishing in Cape Cod Bay got up close and personal with a great white shark that leaped out of the water to snatch a fish they had caught right off the line.

Doug Nelson caught the leaping shark on video on Saturday, July 20. His son Jack and others aboard the boat can be seen in the video recoiling as the shark breaches.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy confirmed it was a great white, as did Marc Costa, captain of the Orleans-based Columbia Sportfishing vessel.

"It had come up and it lunged out of the water and bit the fish, meanwhile swinging its tail up and out of the water," Costa told the Boston Herald. "The shark bit the fish in half, and he took it off the line."

The boat was about three miles west of Great Island in Wellfleet when the shark made its leap, Costa added.

On Instagram, Columbia Sportfishing joked that it was a "real-life episode of Shark Week."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.