A spearfisherman in Australia appears to have escaped death after a photographer with a drone stumbled across him being harassed by an aggressive shark.
Matt Woods was sitting on his balcony in Bondi Beach, Australia when he sent out his Mavic 2 Zoom to take some photos of the ocean when he noticed a spearfisherman fending off what appears to be a mako shark.
"I spotted the shark straight away as there was a big bait ball of fish and as I got closer I could see it was also circling the diver in the water," Woods told The Daily Mail. "The diver was fending the shark off and poking it with his spear gun. The shark then went after his float that is attached to the diver. He was charging it and trying to bite it, thrashing it about."
Imagine being the spearfisherman. You're all alone in the ocean, there's no one to help you, and for what feels like an eternity a shark with massive teeth is trying to take a bite out of you.
Nick Wegner of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography says that a mako shark is one of the last fish you want to come across when you're out in the ocean. "I'd compare a mako to something like a cheetah, but bigger and with larger teeth and more muscle," Wegner said.
Drone Footage Shows Diver Fending Off Shark || Dogtooth Media www.youtube.com
The shortfin mako can swim up to 60 MPH and can freefall with the speed of a skydiver.
However, mako shark attacks are very uncommon. According to Business Insider, there are only 10 documented mako attacks since people began keeping records in 1580. Although it's assumed that many have gone unreported.
But as you can see in the video, the spear fisherman was far from safe.
Woods and his girlfriend immediately notified local lifeguards of the attack and he continued to monitor the situation with his drone.
"I felt as if we helped as best we could," he continued. "We got on the phone to the lifeguards straight away on my girlfriend's phone while I stayed over the shark on my drone the whole time so we could guide them in."
For almost half an hour Woods watched the shark bite at the fisherman's orange float.
"I was pretty concerned for the diver as the shark looked angry. I've never seen anything like it before, only whales. I always seem to miss sharks. We know there are sharks here all the time but nothing like this," Woods continued.
It took about 30 minutes for the lifeguards to clear the beach of swimmers and hop on their jet skis to get out to the fisherman. When they arrived the loud sound of the jet skis scared the shark away. The lifeguards were then able to extract him from the dangerous situation.
Woods then went down to the beach to try and meet the spearfisherman but couldn't find him. "I went looking for the diver after trying to try and meet him but couldn't find him," he said.
Thankfully, he found him when it mattered most.
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Photo courtesy of Macy's