YOUTUBE/JACK GIBBONS The incredible moment was captured on film by Jim Gibbons

In a scene straight from the Steven Spielberg classic, the youngster stares at a giant great white shark as it swims menacingly close to his father’s boat. Yet young Jack Gibbons seems totally unfazed as the ocean’s most notorious predator circles the water inches from his feet. Jack said: “When I saw it coming towards me, its eyes were just pointed to the side so you couldn’t see any of its eyes.

"But you could see it’s white and just the nose was coming right at you." Jack’s father Jim shot the incredible footage of the 20ft great white during a dad-and-lad fishing trip off of Race Point Beach in Provincetown on the extreme tip of Cape Cod. The location is a double for Amity Island, the fictional New England holiday resort where Peter Benchley set his 1974 Jaws novel.

YOUTUBE/JIM GIBBONS Jack Gibbons, 8, was first to spot the apex predator

Spielberg’s big screen reprise went on to win three Oscars but even the multi-million dollar Hollywood production had to rely on a model. The Gibbons were left in awe by the real thing.

He’s hungry and he’s sizing us up for dinner Jim Gibbons

Race Point Beach is becoming the place to see great white sharks this summer, with reports from lifeguards of one a mere four feet from shore, leading to orders for the resort’s shore to be closed temporarily last weekend. Conservation studies have seen an increasing number of sharks identified near Cape Code in recent times, with 34 tagged in 2012 and 120 catalogued last year. Attacks on humans are extremely rare with only two reports since 2000 and neither fatal.

YOUTUBE/JIM GIBBONS The large white shark circles the boat like a scene from the Steven Speilberg classic, Jaws

For the Gibbons, the up close and personal view was something to treasure. And film. Jack can be heard yelling, as he directs his father to get a shot of a lifetime: “Right here, right here!

YOUTUBE/JIM GIBBONS As stealthily as it arrives, the great white slips off into the tranquil waters