Great white shark lunges at veteran who reached out to pet it 'like the family dog' off the US coast

Jen, a female veteran on a free fishing trip off Tybee Island, Georgia, reached over the side of the boat and stroked a great white shark on the head during a tagging operation run by non-profit Knot Lucky Fishing. The shark immediately thrashed and lunged, its jaws crashing into the hull inches from her hand. Jimmy Armel, the former Ranger who founded Knot Lucky, insists Jen was never in real danger because the crew had the animal under control throughout the tagging process.

'One second she's laying her hand on a wild white shark like it's the family dog — the next it whips around and lunges,' Knot Lucky wrote on Facebook.

Knot Lucky names each shark after a fallen Ranger or service member and has tagged ten great whites so far, collecting real migration data.

The shark in the video could not be tagged after the incident due to safety concerns for both the crew and the animal.