It appears, almost out of nowhere.

Clearly on the video, a diver turns to another diver and shouts through his equipment, “Great White.”

The men turn toward the shark as it slowly slides past, glancing their way. It never stops. It never speeds up. It simply saunters past.

“I think he was just checking things out, like sharks do,” said David Murphy who was diving 30 miles off Alabama’s coast when the shark appeared.

Murphy, of Loxley, and some friends were spearfishing in the annual Flora-Bama fishing rodeo earlier this month when they have what Murphy calls the “sight of a lifetime.”

“It was obviously different than the sharks we usually see,” he said. “It was obvious to us what he was.”

The men were about 160 feet deep, a climb that would take more than 15 minutes to safely reach the surface. They were on their way out of the water anyway, Murphy said, but they kept an eye on him as they ascended.

Generally, sharks who visit dive sites are not an issue.

“It depends on the shark,” he said. “The majority of sharks we see are curious like this one was or they’re looking for an easy meal, something they can take without a whole lot of work. Every once in while we have one that is really a problem and is trying hard to take our fish.”

The men estimate the great white measured between 10 – 12 feet long. They brought their film footage to a marine biologist for confirmation and he agreed: they definitely had met their first great white.

“We were more surprised by it than scared,” Murphy said. “He didn’t do anything aggressive but yeah, I grew up in the Jaws era so that does come to mind. We had to do a decompression stop for three minutes at 15 feet and that’s a long time when you’re sitting there looking down and you know what they are capable of.”

Researchers say it is not unusual for great whites to enter the Gulf of Mexico. The sharks general cruise the Atlantic Ocean and stay in colder waters. Murphy said the waters they were diving in remained in the 60s and will remain cooler through the summer month because of the depth.

Earlier this spring a great white being tracked by OCEARCH, an international great white shark research organization, visited waters in the Pensacola area. Last year another great white was tracked by the group in waters south of Navarre.

Murphy said it was his first great white sighting but not necessarily the first time he has been in the water with the species.

“There’s no telling what sees us that we don’t see. We’re in their environment,” he said.

After 30 years of diving, Murphy said he was excited to have spotted the shark that was the stuff of legends.

“That’s pretty special. Now, do I want to see him again this weekend? Not especially,” he said with a laugh.