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27/09/2004: "Shark Crops Ben's Boat 2 ......"a highly spirited one""
An angry and very dangerous ten foot tiger shark last Saturday 27km off Port Douglas doing it's best to sink us. Swimming with this shark had been a large school of big trevally, between 50 and 100 fish, all in shallow water. An amazing spectacle. Not caught on film either.
OCT7 2004 Update:
Photo consultant Ruth Pyle noticed marks on the body of this shark - near the waterline and elsewhere, which we had overlooked at first. Upon close examination these marks appear likely to have been caused by the 30 hp outboard motor propeller as it passed over the creature (when it suddenly changed direction while this writer was steering the boat).
If this is correct it gives the shark a stronger motive to have attacked the boat, rather than, this is what any shark will do without needing to be provoked.
It seems to me to be fresh information shark researchers have not had. (Most 'boaties' would be too shocked at the time to remember fine detail, and in this case it was the camera that captured the unknown possible injury). But this opens a dillema for divers Do you bump a territorial shark with your camera housing? Answer: Yes, a camera won't do as much damage as a high speed outboard prop!
A long-term professional fisherman at Seal Rocks NSW (the late Joss Davies) warned me against ever hitting a shark with ANY item, such as a boat oar. Remember the following quote by Joss:
"You never know what a shark may do if you harm one...they may jump out of the water, even into your boat. Never hit them with anything."
