“But then I saw the spotter plane, and the plane isn’t out there looking for me,” he said. “I was in the center of the plane’s circle, so I got out of the water.”

On Friday afternoon, paddleboarder Terence Roche was photographed only feet from a great white shark while out on the water off of Nauset Beach in Orleans. Roche didn’t know the shark was there, and he had only been out for about 20-30 minutes, he said.

If you’re on the water off Cape Cod, you’re going to need a bigger paddleboard.

He sounded remarkably relaxed for a man who almost came into contact with a shark.


“To be honest,” he said, “I had had my first-ever encounter with a shark about a week prior to this in that same area... It was like time slowed down a little. I tried to stay calm, but I definitely got out of the water.”

This time, he didn’t know how close he was until his wife, Susandra, showed him the photos the non-proft Atlantic White Shark Conservancy had posted to their Facebook page on Saturday. The pictures show Roche standing on his board with a paddle as the shark is seen swimming through the clear water below. In one, Roche approaches the shark from behind as he paddles to the shore.

wayne davis

The photos were taken by aerial photographer Wayne Davis. Davis commented on the conservancy’s post to say he worried that the person was going to crash into the shark.

“I was quite certain that the surfer was about to run into the shark,” he wrote Davis. Although [great white] sharks swim w/little apparent effort, they are moving @ a fair rate.....so luckily they didn’t rendezvous. Even thought the water was fairly clear @ this spot, the shark paid no attention to the surfer.”


Davis said he had been out with the conservancy as part of their ongoing project to study the shark population in the area, as he’s done with them since 2014. The team works from Nauset Beach to Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Davis spots the sharks, and alerts a boat with marine biologist Greg Skomal and a crew from the conservancy, who thenID the sharks and tag them when able.

Friday, Davis had seen at least four other sharks nearby where Roche was paddleboarding. While the number of sharks in local waters decreases as the water gets colder in the winter, in October, there’s still a lot of sharks around.

“I saw many sharks right near Nauset Beach,” said Davis, a retired fisherman. “But they’re not looking for people. They’re looking for their next high calorie meal, and here that’s seals.”

Roche, who grew up in Eastham and now lives in Orleans, said the photo of him paddling toward the shark made him a little nervous, but it’s not going to stop him from going into the water.

“I may think twice about getting in there until the water is a little colder,” he said, adding that if a shark decided to bite him, he wouldn’t have much say in the decision: “If they were interested in me, it would have definitely happened.”

Davis, who said the conservancy just recently tagged its 100th shark, was also pretty chill.


“We were just out on a regular day.”

Steve Annear contributed to this report.

Heather Ciras can be reached at heather.ciras@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @heatherciras.