When John Brooks stepped into his wetsuit and strapped on his scuba tank to go diving on Wednesday near Hubbards, N.S., the 75-year-old never expected to find himself within reach of an apex predator.

"We gotta get out of here," Brooks remembers thinking as a great white shark entered his line of vision, close enough to touch. "This is his home. This is not ours."

Brooks, who was born and raised in Massachusetts but now lives in Florida, is visiting Nova Scotia for the first time with his wife.

A relative novice with less than 50 dives under his belt, he was on a guided dive in waters near Fox Point Beach, about a 40-minute drive from Halifax, N.S., with Torpedo Rays instructor Eric Peterson when they encountered the shark.

"We're swimming along, all of a sudden Eric pulls me by my str

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