When I’m feeling particularly masochistic and want to terrify myself with the unbelievable power of nature, I hop on YouTube and watch videos of great white sharks breaching – i.e. jumping unbelievably high out of the water.
It is extremely great shit and almost as good as video compilations of skateboarders getting nailed in the nuts.
With that haunting vision in mind, it’s perhaps unsurprising that sometimes these big fishy fellas sometimes land in boats. And that’s precisely what happened to NSW fisherman Terry Selwood.
According to ABC News, The 73-year-old was fishing offshore at Evans Head on the New South Wales north coast when a great white launched itself out of the water and landed in his boat.
“I caught a blur of something coming over the boat […] and the pectoral fin of the shark hit me on the forearm and knocked me down on the ground to my hands and knees,” Mr Selwood said.
“He came right over the top of the motor and then dropped onto the floor.”
The shark was reportedly “2.7 metres long and about 200 kilos,” and it did a bit of damage to Selwood when it hit the deck of his boat. Not that it actually bit him, mind you – shark skin is like sandpaper, and it tore up his arm.
“He just bounced around in there and he struck my arm a couple of times and I thought he’d broke my arm to be honest but it’s just torn the skin off it.”
The fisherman estimates it must have jumped at least four feet out of the water in order to clear his outboard motor and land in the boat. That’s a bit of air for a big-ass shark, just saying.
Selwood called the local marine rescue unit, which sent a crew out to rescue him. They then did a second trip to get that damn shark out of the boat. Though Selwood thought it was a mako shark, it was later confirmed it was a great white after the shark was taken off for an autopsy.
Despite all that, Selwood’s not that impressed. Speaking to ABC News, he said it’s basically no big deal. “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.”
Yeah righto.
Source: ABC News.
Photo: Jaws.
