Australia, the land down under is home to a seemingly endless list of creatures that can kill you. Among the most feared is arguably the great white shark or "white pointer" as it is often called down there. Giant great whites are not an uncommon sight in Australia and as evidenced by this incredible footage, some people down there have learned to live with them.
Two brothers were out chumming for snapper off the city of Perth in July 2020 when the giant ocean predator responded instead.
Most people's reaction would be to shift the boat into a high gear and motor away as quickly as possible. Not these two. One of them had a GoPro camera on a stick and he decided to get some spectacular shots as the big fish bumped their boat multiple times.
In case you were wondering, a 5.2-meter shark translates to roughly 17 feet long. That is one big fish! For further reference on how big this animal was, the IGFA world record for a great white is a 16-footer caught in 1959. That fish weighed a whopping 2,664 pounds. Of course, great whites are protected today, so we know much larger examples, like the shark in this video are swimming around out there.
With a fish that may have been approaching 3,000 pounds, it is not surprising their attempts to ward the great white off with a GoPro on a stick failed. Fortunately, the only damage was teeth marks to parts of their boat and the brothers, and the shark all went their separate ways.
Perth has long been a hotspot of shark activity in Australia. Many large specimens have been caught there. It has also been home to numerous attacks by white sharks, including one fatal one in January of 2020.
Fortunately, these types of attacks are rare, as are human encounters like what is shown in the video. These two got to witness an incredibly rare sight. Thanks for sharing your incredible footage with the world guys!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
