A great white shark jumped four feet out of the water and into a fisherman’s boat on a calm day off the southern coast of Australia over the weekend.
The shark breached the water, cleared the motor of Terry Selwood’s 15-foot boat, knocking the 73-year-old fisherman off his feet, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports. The shark was nearly 9 feet long, and weighed about 440 pounds.
“I caught a blur of something coming over the boat,” Selwood said, “and the pectoral fin of the shark hit me on the forearm and knocked me down on the ground to my hands and knees.”
“Well I’ll be buggered, there’s a shark in my boat,” Selwood remembers thinking.
Selwood initially thought his arm was broken by the impact of the shark’s fin, but later realized the pain was from the shark’s rough scales scraping away his skin.
“I was losing a fair amount of blood, I was stunned, I couldn’t register what happened and then I thought oh my God, I’ve got to get out of here,” Selwood said.
“There I was on all fours, and he’s looking at me, and I’m looking at him, and then he started to do the dance around and shake, and I couldn’t get out quick enough onto the gunnel,” Selwood said.
“Well I’ll be buggered, there’s a shark in my boat!” Terry Selwood tells us how a 200kg great white shark ended up in his fishing boat. pic.twitter.com/HabXaDezkt
— ABC News (@abcnews) May 28, 2017
Selwood quickly scrambled onto the side of the boat and radioed for help. “It was thrashing around madly,” and destroyed the equipment in Selwood’s boat. “Every now and again, it would come to life again and give a bit more of a thrashing. And I just stood there and watched it.”
The coast guard picked up Selwood, then made another trip back to retrieve his boat with the shark in it. Selwood couldn’t figure out why the shark decided to leap into his boat. He had a baited line in the water beneath his boat, but nowhere near the back of the boat where the shark decided to board.
Selwood said he’ll be back out fishing as soon as he gets his equipment repairs. “I think next time I might find a crocodile to wrestle, just to stay in the limelight,” Selwood joked.
“But really, it’s not a great story, it’s just a mundane thing that just happened and it’s over and done with, but something that I’ll remember,” Selwood said.
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