The Massachusetts coastline may welcome 13 different species of sharks, but the star is the great white. Greg Skomal, a researcher with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, captured a close encounter with a great white shark's mouth earlier this week. Fortunately, he was on a boat and holding a GoPro camera on a pole from a safe distance away. 

The only soundtrack is the sloshing of water. The shark swims across the camera's view before coming back around for a head-on look at the gadget. Next comes a wide open mouth and a delightful look at the sea creature's pointy teeth. The video lasts less than 30 seconds, but it makes quite an impression. 

Skomal told NBC Boston the 11-foot-long (3.4 meter) female shark was just checking out the camera and would have destroyed it if it had been a serious bite. 

Skomal has put the camera in front of sharks hundreds of times, but this was the first shark to take a bite of it. "This was a new behavior, so it was pretty exciting for us," Skomal said.

Shark researchers with the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy are keeping track of tagged sharks in the area, but the camera-biting shark wasn't one of them.