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Seeing a massive Great White Shark up close is an experience that some people spend A LOT of money on while others like these first responders are thrust into the situation in order to save a shark’s life despite (probably) wanting nothing to do with this straight-up dinosaur.
Cottesloe Beach in Western Australia was shut down when this 17.39-foot Great White Shark was spotted in a line just 320-yards off the beach. Swimmers were told to immediately evacuate the water while a team went out to remove the tangled shark that had followed a Tiger Shark into the area before it got stuck.
This 17.39-foot Great White is the second-largest ever recorded in Western Australia. Seriously, stop what you’re doing and look around the room you’re in right now and try to grasp just how massive 17-feet is for a shark. It’s hard to really grasp the humbling and awesome size of a shark like this but you can at least look at your 8-foot couch and realize the shark was over 2x longer. This is one of the most popular beaches in all of Perth and it was just a few hundred yards off of the sand.
According to For The Win and 9News Australia, the shark was caught, tagged, and released the shark:
Cottesloe Beach was shut twice in one day yesterday and drumlines deployed to catch and tag a monster shark that’s been lurking off the WA coastline.
The decision was made to catch, tag and release the powerful five-metre great white after it was spotted circling just a few hundred metres off Perth’s most popular beach.
The alert came from the Surf Life Saving helicopter off Cottesloe, at 9.32 on Friday morning with the alarm ringing out across the sand. Three minutes later, the beach closed and swimmers were evacuated from the water.
Fisheries deployed four drumlines, using pink snapper to attract the predator but the mission didn’t quite go to plan.
The mammoth creature got tangled in the lines and thrashed against the side of the boat, which was approximately one kilometre off shore.
One brave Fisheries worker had to place his hand dangerously close to the shark’s jaws to help free it. (via 9News)
Imagine being the guy who had to stick his hands near the jaws (teeth) of a 17-foot great white shark who’s pissed off that it was just caught when moments before it was living a free life and zeroing in on an easy meal. That’s not exactly a job I’d be running to sign up for.
According to the local news, there have been a ton of shark sightings lately. 31 within a week which forced 11 beaches closed and hundreds of swimmers out of the water. The first day of Summer in Australia began on December 1st so there are all sorts of swimmers at the beach, one of the few places people can safely congregate outside with everything going on in the world.
For more on this encounter, you can visit For The Win and/or Australia’s 9 News.