The Gold Coast Bulletin

Shark drops in on angler

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in trouble and I’ve got a shark in my boat.

“They took me to the hospital and when they asked me what happened, I said a shark jumped in my boat. They thought … I might be drunk, saying ‘ yeah what a story to tell’.”

It’s not the first encounter Mr Selwood’s had with a great white. “I’ve had them brush by the side of my boat. I see them put their heads out of the water. But they don’t usually jump in people’s boats,” he said.

Marine Rescue brought him ashore before retrieving his boat. A forklift was needed to lift the shark out the vessel.

“When we looked inside the boat, there was a huge shark. The shark had the chair in its mouth where Terry would have been sitting,” said witness Genevieve Francis, 25.

It comes as the State Government started removing shark nets off five north coast beaches – including Evans Head – because of worries about whales being caught in them.

NSW Game Fishing Associatio­n’s president Garry Chenoweth said the incident was a “freak anomaly”.

“We’ve had some pretty close calls with sharks,” he said. “Great whites do breach the water chasing seals or birds, but this is a bit of a freak anomaly. I’ve never seen that before but there is a first time for everything.

“There will be more and more interactio­n with great whites over the next five years because their population has increased tenfold over the past 10 years.”

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