A kayaker’s GoPro camera captured the tense moments after a Great White Shark took a keen interest in him while in the waters off Western Australia Thursday.
Ian Watkins was kayaking in King George Sound near Albany when he says he noticed a fin in the water, following him.
“This wave was coming behind me and I thought ‘what the heck’s that’, and then I looked on and there’s this massive fin, and I thought ‘that’s a serious shark,'” Watkins told ABC News in Australia.
Watkins’ GoPro camera was recording as he noticed the shark circling him in the water and began radioing a nearby whale watching vessel for aid.
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According to Watkins the Great White, believed to be between four and five metres in length, began nudging him and circling his small kayak as he radioed for help.
“It pushed me from the left hand side and then it nudged me from the middle across the left hand side,” Watkins said. “I was trying to stay upright and then it circled me for a while and I got on the radio and said ’emergency, emergency, emergency.'”
Eventually, a whale watching craft some 600 metres away responded to Watkins’ call and transported him to nearby Emu Point.
He says he’s glad to be back on dry land and away from the overly-curious shark.
“I don’t know whether it would have actually attacked me or whether it was just checking me out but it was definitely interested and didn’t let me go.”