Watch A Great White Shark Ruin A New Jersey Fishing Trip

A group of friends was fishing off the coast of Cape May, New Jersey on Saturday when they got a surprise visit from a giant great white shark.

NBC Philadelphia reports the 16-foot shark circled the water around the group's 35-foot boat for 20 minutes before biting down on a basket of bait.

"Watch out," a man can be heard saying in a video of the encounter. "He could come out. Get back. Get back. You guys are nuts. Don't get close. It will come up. It will come after us."

"He ripped our chum bag right off," another man says before the shark swims away.

"Was it worth it though?" a woman can be heard saying. "I'll buy you a new chum bag. That was amazing."

"She's gorgeous," another fisherman says.

Friends in the group, as it turns out, also work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to tag sharks off the New Jersey coast as part of a project called the Apex Predator Program. The program gathers data on large sharks in the Atlantic.

As NBC Philadelphia points out, the great white population in the Atlantic has increased since 2000, partly in thanks to conservation efforts.