A fishing crew has had a terrifying encounter with a trio of great white sharks during a competition.
In a video taken by the X-stream fishing team during an annual competition off Port Stephens on Saturday, a four-metre great white can be seen bearing down on the crew’s burley bag.
After the crew put enough distance between themselves and the fish, another even larger shark – estimated to be over five metres long – surfaced nearby.
Newcastle and Port Stephens Game Fish Club president Troy Radford told Daily Mail the second fish ‘could have done some damage’ to the five-and-a-half metre boat.
‘Earlier, it was chewing on the corner of the boat, it was chewing on its side gunnel,’ he said.
‘It’s so big that it managed to pull the boat down [into the water] a bit… Big fish, small boat.’
But as terrifying as the footage may be, when asked what his reaction to the video was, he said they all thought ‘how lucky they were to be there’ and called it ‘the spectacle of a lifetime’.
While it is not uncommon to see juvenile great whites in the area, Mr Radford said it is much less common to see a fully-grown adult, let alone three.
When the second day of the competition was called off due to bad weather, Mr Radford joined the X-Stream crew for beers over lunch who immediately showed him the footage.
‘They were still so excited. They were in awe. The adrenaline was still pumping,’ he said.
Footage like this is rare for another reason. According to Mr Radford, most fishermen like to hold onto their best encounters.
The crew of X-stream, however, decided to share their video in the hopes of bringing attention to an issue they believe threatens the future of their favourite fishing spot: the Hunter Offshore Wind Zone.
Announced in mid-2023, the 1,800sqkm region extends along the coast of Swansea and Port Stephens and is expected to power up to 4.2million homes.
The project has become something of a lightning rod in the lead up to the federal election as part of a broader debate around renewables.
For Mr Radford, however, it’s not a matter of politics.
‘We are extremely concerned about the impact of the Hunter project,’ he said, adding that the Minister for Climate Change, Chris Bowen had chosen ‘the worst possible area on the east coast of the country’.
The local area is known for its biodiversity, bringing fishermen from around the country in search of marlin.
‘We call [the area] the carpark because of all the boats that head out there during the season,’ he said.
But it’s potential impact on local shark populations Mr Radford is particularly concerned about.
‘Apart from the size [of the wind farm zone], wind farms emit electromagnetic fields… sharks rely on electromagnetic signals and their noses are very sensitive,’ he said.
‘If we don’t show the public, they won’t know what we stand to lose.’