Video: Thresher Shark Gets Extremely Close to New Jersey Beach

Outdoor writer Bob Misak and Sue Foti captured a video of an estimated 250-pound thresher shark beaching itself along the Long Beach Island surf in New Jersey. “[The shark] was chasing bunker out on the sand bar when it came off the bar and swam into the cut and then just starting swimming right at me toward the beach,” Misak says. “It wasn’t sick or anything, just confused I think. After it beached itself, it whipped its tail around and propelled back into the water and swam right back through the cut. It was awesome.” 

While not uncommon to see thresher sharks near shore, many times just outside the breaking waves whipping their tails through bait schools, it is unusual to find threshers getting stuck inside the breaking waves. During the spring and fall striped bass season, reports of threshers being hooked on bunker spoons and shad bar rigs invariably happen as the sharks are found feeding on bunker schools from outside the breakers to 3 miles from shore.