Two fisherman have survived a close encounter with one of the ocean’s deadliest creatures when a great white shark began circling their tinny off the coast of South Australia.
Victorians James Harris and Fraser Bothe were among a group of mates in the state for the Easter long weekend, and were out fishing about 2km off Robe Island when they noticed something eerie.
A flock of birds around the boat quickly flew off and it was then the group noticed something lurking in the ocean.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
Harris whipped out his phone and started filming a massive great white shark, which began circling the boat.
“That is f****** huge,” one of the fisherman can be heard saying.
“It’s coming towards us.”
The group wasted no time returning to shore and sharing their frightening experience on social media which quickly went viral.
Speaking to Sunrise, Harris said the entire ordeal was “quite scary but pretty cool”.
“It was a bit of a shock,” he said.
“There would have been like six or seven birds … around the boat … and they all just flew off and the next minute we just saw this big dorsal fin.
“It was quite big, the video doesn’t do it justice but we got the video then got out of there pretty quick.”
Harris said the shark circled the boat around two to three times.
Bothe, who was behind the wheel of the boat, said he thought the shark would have been close to five metres long.
“This boat is 4.5m-long and when it came up beside it, it was longer than (the boat),” he said.
While Bothe was keen to get going as soon as possible, Harris said he was keen to get more of a glimpse of the creature.
“I wanted to stay and take a few more videos but this bloke here (Bothe), he turned the key and got out of there pretty quick,” Harris said.
It wasn’t the only close shark encounter in South Australia over the long weekend, with a 16-year-old boy escaping the jaws of a shark while surfing in Middleton.
The suspected bronze whaler shark clamped down on his ankle, knocking the teenager off his board.
He managed to paddle back to shore for help with his injuries not considered serious.
