Port Fairy fisherman Daniel Hoey has seen great white sharks in the area before, but never this close up.
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The owner and operator of Salty Dog Fishing Charters in Port Fairy was chartering a private booking last Thursday when he was forced to fend off a shark with a humble broom after it sunk its teeth into his boat motor.
“We were halfway between Port Fairy and Warrnambool, about eight miles offshore, fishing for gummy sharks,” Mr Hoey said.
“It (the shark) took the cage with burley from under the boat and swam away with it and disappeared. We thought that was the end of that so we kept fishing, but then it came back for more and was just hanging around.”
This is not the first time Mr Hoey has encountered sharks in the area.
“They’re attracted to the spinning propeller on the motor,” he said
“It just kept trying to bite it. They all do it. It came and bit the motor and kept coming back.
“It must have swum past us thirty times, just looking at the motor and looking at us.”
Mr Hoey said the attack happened around midday on Thursday.
“The whole thing went on for about an hour I suppose, 15 minutes of circling, then it disappeared for about 20 minutes and then came back for about half an hour,” he said.
“We weren’t going to catch any gummy sharks with that thing hanging around so we pulled anchor and left.”
Mr Hoey was on the boat with a crewmember and a paying guest called Steve, who Mr Hoey cheekily blames for the incident.
“I’ve seen six of them around here in three years but Steve has seen heaps so I don’t know if he just attracts them,” he said.
Video footage of the incident has gone viral on the internet and Mr Hoey has been contacted by media outlets from across the world to tell his story.
The footage has featured on the websites of the Los Angeles Herald, Boston Star, Arizona Herald, Daily Mail, Triple M, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
The video has been watched more than 150,000 times.
Go to standard.net.au to see the footage.
The shark came and bit the motor and kept coming back. It must have swum past us 30 times, just looking at the motor and looking at us.
- Daniel Hoey