MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — A rare great white shark sighting about 30 miles off the Alabama coast was caught on camera.

Researchers at the University of South Alabama (USA) captured video of a juvenile female great white shark hanging out south of the Sand Island lighthouse.

According to a news release from USA, this is the first known sighting in that area recorded by scientists, and this juvenile shark has never been recorded before. The researchers who captured the shark on camera had the honor of naming the shark now known as Miss Pawla.

USA Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences Director Dr. Sean Powers said researchers were surveying amberjack and red snapper when they unexpectedly ran into Miss Pawla, an 8-foot-long great white shark.

Out of the distance came a silhouette of a shark, which isn't unusual, but what was unusual was that it was a great white shark,” said Powers.

According to Powers, this sighting is rare. He says great white sharks typically like to stay in cooler waters.

They stay for a while and by the time the waters warm up and people really start going to the beaches those sharks will be out of here," he said.

Most beachgoers are not as excited to hear of shark sightings as Lillian Niccum was. She said the video of Miss Pawla is something you do not see every day.

I’ve never been afraid of it,” she said. “I don't think that they are really after people unless you like get in the way or do something to provoke them."

In February, a 15-foot-long great white shark washed up on the shore at Navarre Beach, Florida. Powers says it seems like the great white sharks are likely just following a food source down to the Gulf of Mexico.

“The odds that we were lucky enough to capture the only great white shark out there are slim, so there's probably another white shark out there,” he said.

Powers said Miss Pawla is about 13 to 15 years old, about 8 feet long, and 250 pounds. Once she fully matures, she could grow to be 21 to 23 feet in length and 4,000 pounds, said Powers.

"Now those bigger sharks we really think are more migratory,” he said. “The really big ones they stay in the big ocean. They have a tremendous amount of food requirements. So, we don't expect to see that big of a great white, but you know, we never expected to see Miss Pawla so."

Miss Pawla was last spotted at the end of April. According to the press release from USA, researchers went back to the site on May 3, and she was gone.

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