This stark photo of a mako shark was taken off the coast of North Carolina. (Ocean First Institute)

A large mako tried to bite a shark researcher’s camera off North Carolina, and the resulting photo is giving people the willies on social media.

The image, taken during a recent OCEARCH expedition, shows the shark with its mouth wide open, revealing row upon row of jagged teeth.

It was captured with a baited underwater camera deployed by Chris Malinowski, director of research and conservation for Colorado-based Ocean First Institute.

Comments on social media have ranged from awe to fear — along with some jokes about an obvious gap in the shark’s teeth.

“Like a beautiful avalanche of razor blades,” one commenter wrote.

“That’s a face only two people could love, it’s mother & orthodontist,” another said.

“I’m a diver, an instructor, and I teach spear fishing. That is not beautiful, adorable, anything of the sort,” another commenter, Ken Barkhuff, wrote. “If you’ve ever been charged by a shark (I have), they’re not beautiful with their mouths open coming at you.”

The size of the mako was not revealed, but they can grow to 13 feet long in the Atlantic and can swim at 45 mph, experts say.

Mako are a critical part of the marine food chain. However, they’re also notorious for a “fearsome appearance” due to their long, slender teeth being “visible even when the mouth is closed,” experts say.

OCEARCH was set sail off North Carolina in March to find evidence the region may be a mating location for great white sharks. The Ocean First Institute was among the collaborating institutions. The expedition ran March 4 through March 24 and traveled as far north as Onslow Bay off Morehead City.

Ocean First Institute Director Mikki McComb-Kobza told McClatchy News the agency is using its research to debunk “the general idea that all sharks are monsters.”

“I know he (the mako) does look a bit scary with the teeth and all, but it really is a fascinating animal and its story is much cooler than many people know,” McComb-Kobza said.

“Makos may be more closely related to the largest predatory shark that ever lived, the Megalodon. ... They are the fastest sharks in the ocean and they have a mechanism that super heats their eyes so they can see fast moving prey!”