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Stranded Fisherman Uses Speargun To Fend Off Great White Shark Attack

Stranded Fisherman Uses Speargun To Fend Off Great White Shark Attack

He said he was 'sh*t scared' during the ordeal but has lived to tell the tale.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

There are enough shark attack movies out there to ensure people scared of the underwater beasts never return to the ocean.

Some of them show an innocent person enjoying a swim in the sea all while they're being stalked by one of the world's most terrifying apex predators.

Well, that stuff happens in real life and one Aussie fisherman has lived to tell his tale.

Joe Petrovich/Instagram

Joe Petrovich was spearfishing off the West Australian coast this week with a couple of mates when a 4.5metre great white shark came for him.

While Joe and his pals had a boat to treat as their sanctuary, when this shark approached the brick layer was around 250 metres away from it.

He quickly realised the only way to get out of this situation was to be calm, slowly edge himself towards the boat and fend off the shark with his spearfishing gun. He managed to shoot the shark in the head, however that didn't deter it.

"It was following me, it was pretty much stalking me all the way back, trying to find a weakness in my defence," Joe told Channel 7.

"I was shit scared. I mean how would you be? I think I'm going to lose one leg and I might lose the bottom half of the other one as well.

Channe 7

"You've only got one shot...it's very hard to kill an animal that big. If you wound it you are only going to make it angrier."

"It was coming at me from lots of different directions, the left-hand side, the right-hand side, it's coming at me from underneath. It was just looking for a feed. I just wish it wasn't me."

Joe successfully used the his gun to fend off the great white's attacks until he got back to his boat.

When he hopped on board, his friends were reportedly completely oblivious to what had happened.

Fearing they wouldn't be safe back in the water they decided to head back to the shoreline and call water authorities about the shark. According to the West Australian, the shark continued to follow the boat for around three minutes before realising it's lunch would have to be found elsewhere.

Featured Image Credit: Channel 7

Topics: Community, Animals, Australia