Marine biologists capture GoPro video of 15ft female shark off Cape Cod

The video was shot as part of a five-year project into the white shark population

Marine biologists from off the Massachusetts coast have captured stunning up-close footage of the first female shark spotted in Cape Cod in 2015.

Scientists from the northeastern state's Division of Marine Fisheries are in the second year of a five-year white shark population study, with Greg Skomal and John Chisholm cataloguing the 15ft female shark and adding it to their project list.

The GoPro video shows the huge female emerging from the murky green water and swimming right by the camera lens, giving an amazing high-definition view of the shark's gills and texture of the skin.

Massachusetts' Division of Marine Fisheries is working on the project with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy

The video comes as another GoPro clip on the other side of the world captured the moment a surfer was circled by a great white shark.

The footage nerve-wracking video was shot at Manly Beach in Sydney, which lies on the shore of the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.