A group of anglers enjoyed a great white shark encounter in Australia.
The group of fishermen were enjoying the day around 3 miles (5km) off the coast off Port Broughton in South Australia when the white shark showed up earlier this month. The shark swam around the 19 foot (6M) boat several times.
One of the anglers tries to figure out the length of the shark by comparing to the length of the boat. He can be heard on the video saying the shark is “Well, he’s over three and a half meters, man”, by those calculations, the shark would benearly 12 feet long.
Jokingly another member of the groups says “Well, the more he comes up the bigger he gets. By the time we go home he’ll be eight meters (26 ft).”
Courtney Canham told 7 News the shark “approached the boat a few times and came up on the surface, put his head out of the water and kind of eye-balled us a few times.”
Canham went on to say the great white was calm “It was incredible, there was no aggression, really whatsoever, even when he opened his mouth.”
The group acted responsibly and did not harass the shark. Fishing expert Shane Mensforth shared his thoughts saying “If you’ve got a big fish on the line like a snapper, you’re trying to gaff it or net it or putting a GoPro down underwater, that’s a no-no when sharks are around. Don’t put any part of your body anywhere near the water. Stand back and enjoy the experience.”
There have been several occasions where both great white and tiger sharks have been documented approaching boats in the water. While fishermen’s bait and caught fish may initially bring the sharks in, often times the sharks seem to pay closer attention to the boats motor. This could be due to the sharks electrical sensory organs.
Sharks have sensing organs called electroreceptors around their heads that help the sharks pick up electrical fields in the water. The receptors are known as ampullae of Lorenzini and contain a special jelly. Researchers have just discovered this jelly has the strongest proton conductivity or any biological material yet studied.
The sensory organ could be the reason why great whites and other sharks are often seen biting boats motors. It seems plausible they are simply test biting to see if the object is food. This would explain why the shark in the above video passed so close to the aft of the boat.
