A curious great white shark took Australian police by surprise on Saturday as the massive fish stalked their patrol boat during a routine operation.
South Australian police were patrolling the waters and about to pull over a fishing boat for a random breathalyzer test when the great white shark started stalking the dinghy.
Mark Oates, one of the men on the fishing boat, told ABC in an interview he was fishing on the boat with his friend who suddenly swore and said, “look at the size of this thing that’s coming up behind us!”
Oates said the shark was around 4.5 to five metres long and became interested in their fishing boat.
“We kind of had thoughts of changing our Bonds [underwear] a couple of times,” he told ABC.
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Oates said they were trying to escape, but that’s when the police showed up.
“At the same time, the coppers were out there with their big patrol boat and they had another two guys on the inflatable,” Oates said. Oates said he told the cops to back off for a bit because of the shark.
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“For probably the next 10 or 15 minutes we just sat around. The police brought the big boat in, which is where the footage from above the shark has come from,” he said.
The South Australia Police Force dubbed the shark Noah and wrote about the encounter on its Facebook page.
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“Police launch Investigator 2 had a close encounter with a Great White shark today while patrolling at Tapley Shoal, about 9 nautical miles east of Edithburgh,” the police force wrote.
“30 boats were checked and pleasingly, no operators tested positive to drugs or alcohol and only a few minor breaches for safety equipment were found. Noah wasn’t keen on being breath tested and our Water Operations Unit officers were happy to oblige!”
In the end, Oates said police never gave him a breathalyzer test.
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