Moment Great White Shark Devours Porpoise off Coast of Maine Caught On Film

A great white shark has been caught on camera devouring a porpoise off the coast of New England.

According to the Patriot-News, the incredible footage was captured by a family that was in Casco Bay, Maine, when they spotted the great white shark feeding on a porpoise at about 3 p.m. on August 19.

The footage was shared later that day on the MA Sharks Facebook page with a caption that read: "Thanks to citizen scientists Kasey Lyn Watkins and family for sending me info about their amazing sighting.

"They spotted this juvenile white shark feeding on a harbor porpoise off Maine. It's a good reminder that white sharks occur off Maine and they don't just eat seals."

In the video, taken by Watkins, the porpoise can be seen in the water before the great white shark showed itself.

Within seconds the shark sank its teeth into the animal and started to tear at it until blood could be seen.

During the clip, Watkins could be heard saying: "Oh, it is. It is a white shark."

Newsweek has contacted Watkins for comment.

According to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC), a group that aims to carry out research on them and educates people about the marine creatures, there has been an increase in the number of sharks off the coast of New England.

It said: "Over the past decade, Cape Cod has emerged as the only known place in the northwest Atlantic where white sharks aggregate.

"Many modern-day residents and visitors of Cape Cod believe that recent increases in the regional abundance of white sharks is a new development.

"However, though records of white sharks are relatively sparse, archeological evidence, available catch data and anecdotal accounts suggest the 400-million-year-old species has a long history in the region."

The AWSC said it believes the reason for the surge in shark numbers off the coast of New England is the high number of gray seals in the Cape Cod area, "a favored food source" for the carnivores.

It added: "Gray seals have recolonized the region following the prohibition of bounty hunting by the state of Massachusetts in the 1960s and the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972."

Newsweek has reported on numerous cases where sharks have been sighted off the U.S. coast.

Karren Sites, from Pittsburgh, was one of two shark attack victims on Myrtle Beach in South Carolina on August 15. Police were unsure if both attacks were done by the same shark, as they occurred half a mile and several hours apart.

Sites told WPDE-TV: ""I just felt something I guess bite me, and I looked down and there was a shark on my arm and I was only in waist [deep] water and I kept pushing at it to get it off my arm."