Fisherman's Lucky Escape After Tangling With 4.5m White Pointer Shark

[mrmoshe]

Fisherman's lucky escape after tangling with 4.5m white pointer shark

May 09, 2009 12:00pm

A FISHERMAN came face-to-face with a massive Great White shark after falling from his dinghy in Cockburn Sound early Saturday morning.

The Rockingham man, aged in his 30s, fell into the sea as he tried to defend himself against a 4.5m shark that rammed his small aluminium fishing boat from behind at 7am.

In a terrifying chain of events described by sea rescue volunteers, the man tried to deter the shark from chewing on his outboard motor by hitting it on the nose with an oar.

But the man-eating monster grabbed the oar and as the fisherman attempted to retrieve it, he toppled into the water.

The boat, which the man was preparing to anchor, was still in gear and motored away from him towards shore, preventing him from climbing aboard.

The shark circled the man four or five times before he was able to flee. He began a frantic two nautical mile swim to shore and was picked up by a fisherman after half an hour.

Yesterday, Rockingham Sea Rescue volunteers recounted the man's terror at his narrow escape.

``He told us the dorsal fin was about the height of a table and the shark was about 4-5m long,'' said volunteer rescuer Colin Lowson.

``He said when he fell out of the boat, he was face-to-face with the shark. It was that close. All he saw was a mass of white.''

A Police spokesman said: "The man was in the process of anchoring the boat when he heard a noise coming from the boat's motor.

"When he turned around he noticed a shark, described as a 4.5m white pointer, nibbling at the motor."

The incident occurred just a few kilometres from where Port Kennedy man Brian Guest was taken by a 4m-5m white pointer in December 2008.

Mr Guest, 56, was diving for crabs in just a few metres of water when he was taken by a giant shark.

At City Beach early today a PerthNow reader reported seeing a giant dorsal fin, just 25m from the shore.

Matty said: "Went for my morning run at south City Beach, 300m down from the groyne and to my astonishment a dorsal fin the size of a bike wheel was about 25m off of the beach.

"I'm pretty sure it was a great white.''

[glennmreid]

What a terrrifying experience that would be. Glad the man came out of it ok.

[david88]

crazy stuff.

Hope it doesnt deter him from ever going out on the water again.

[BTK]

that would have to be one of the most scary/crazy experiences you could ever have, id hate the swim back with the thought of being eaten, something that i hope i never experience.

[WANNAFISH]

Thats on hell of a scare. I wouldnt even know what to at that point. Hard not to panic.

Someone should invent serrated props for this type of situation.