Great White Shark Gets Her Close Up Leading Up To Discovery Shark Week

Fans got a sneak peek at Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week when filmmaker Dave Riggs shared a photo from his encounter with a great white shark on Facebook.

Dave Riggs Snaps Close Up Of Great White Shark

Riggs, an Australian filmmaker working with Discovery Channel, shared the impressive photo of a great white baring its impressive teeth on May 5, and the post quickly went viral.

According to Riggs, the great white shark was about 15 feet long and, despite her menacing look, was only curious. “She was around 15-foot long, and wasn’t being aggressive, believe it or not, but certainly looks like it in that image. But that’s how they assess their surroundings,” Riggs told ABC Goldfields.

Riggs and his filmmaking team spotted the great white off the coast of South Australia, and Riggs revealed that one of the cameramen bent down to sea level to snap the photo. Riggs hopes the photo would encourage people not to be afraid of sharks, saying, “I just felt obliged to post it, I guess, because it’s real… it’s not being aggressive, it was not attempting to kill anyone, it was just very curious.”

Riggs’ statement echoes his original caption of the photo, which read, “This is how a great white ‘sniffs’… it looks frightening but this…it really is…the last dinosaur. WE MUST PROTECT this magnificent creature!!!!”

In a short interview with Discovery, Riggs said, “She was extremely inquisitive of what we were and what we were doing. And of course, great whites don’t have hands, and she was researching the area in the only way she knows how – and that’s with her mouth,” Riggs said.

Shark Week on Discovery begins Sunday, July 5 at 8 p.m.