Great white shark circles fishing boat, feasts on dead whale off N.Y.

LONG BEACH, N.Y., June 26 (UPI) -- A New York state man captured video of a great white shark circling his fishing boat and feasting on the carcass of a dead whale.

Michael Maiale, who posted the video to YouTube, said he and his friends set out for a fishing trip June 14 about 45 miles offshore of Long Beach, N.Y., and they spotted a giant whale carcass they thought to be another boat until they were close enough to smell the rotting animal.

Maiale and his friends soon noticed a blip on their fish radar and saw a great white shark's dorsal fin pop out of the water.

The fishermen dunked their GoPro camera into the water to get up-close shots of the shark as it circled their boat.

Maiale said the three-minute video was condensed from six hours of footage. He said there were risks involved in putting his hand into the water with the camera, but he has been shark fishing for years and knows when the animals have come too close for safety.

It was unclear whether the shark and whale carcass were the same featured in an earlier video by Johnny Beau, who shot footage of a similar scene he estimated to be about 30 miles offshore of Freeport, N.Y.