THIS is the dramatic moment a shocked fisherman came face-to-face with a 12ft great white shark in the latest sighting off the East Coast.

Marine experts have already warned beachgoers to be vigilant of the waters after terrifying pictures showed a 15ft shark stalking the east coast shorelines.

With temperatures shooting up, Americans are flocking to beaches to enjoy the warm weather – and lifeguards are doing their part to protect sunbathers in the waters due to an increase in shark sightings.

Fisherman Jim Piazza and his son Jayden were the latest to spot a great white shark nearly half the size of their 23ft boat while sailing off the southern coast of New Jersey.

Jim, from Pennsylvania, is renting a home in Sea Isle for the summer and had been fishing with Jayden when he nearly ran right over the beast.

He said: "The videos. It was just nonchalantly there. I’ve never seen anything like that."

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He posted a video of the encounter on his Facebook page. 

Not long after the incident was reported, the US Coast Guard boarded Jim's boat and also shared the video to their social media channels. 

The International Shark Attack file lists 15 confirmed and unprovoked shark attacks in New Jersey since 1837. 

Several factors, including warming ocean temperatures, are contributing to an increase in shark activity in cities along the Atlantic Ocean coastline.

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The first shark sighting was spotted over Memorial Day weekend just off the Massachusetts shore of the popular Nantucket beach.

A shocking video captured by a local resident shows the shark, believed to be at least 15-feet, eating a seal while swimming out in the waters.

In the video footage, the shark can be seen swimming near the Great Point Lighthouse near Nantucket beach, according to the local media outlet Nantucket Current.

“Oh my God, you can see the blood!” gasps one spectator as the water turns red at the attack scene.

On June 1, a fisherman spotted a massive 10-foot mako shark thrashing on a beach on Long Island, New York.

Video showed the shark at Point Lookout just north of the Loop Parkway bridge.

Wildlife experts believe it was a mako shark approximately 10 feet long.

With the Fourth of July national holiday approaching, Parks and Recreation officials are putting swimmers on high alert due to several shark sightings reported earlier than usual.

Scientists believe warmer and cleaner waters are attracting more sharks to eastern coastlines earlier than usual.

A resurgence of the bunker fish population is also luring them to area waters.

“People will not want to hear this, but I often see sharks either right in the waves or just beyond the waves,” conservation biologist and Shark Week host Craig O'Connell told Newsday.

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Some species, such as bull sharks and tiger sharks, are known to swim in shallow waters.

Late last summer, several bull sharks were spotted along the south shore of Long Island.

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