INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Tiger Shark Bumps Diver’s Camera Off Australia

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 02:29 PST, Jun 10, 2015

An underwater cameraman recently filmed his unusual encounter with a four-meter-long tiger shark off the coast of Australia, as the animal swam directly for him and bumped into his camera.

Documentary filmmaker Andre Rerekura, who hails from Perth, according to the Daily Mail, was working with a group of freedivers off the coast of Western Australia when he encountered the large female tiger shark. Reaching a spot roughly 50km offshore of Geraldton, Rerekura and the other divers from Terra Australis TV entered the 12-meter-deep water, and were approached by a group of tiger sharks.

“We jumped in to investigate and have a closer look and we ended up having three tiger sharks coming up. We were with the tiger sharks for maybe an hour and a half,” he recalled.

When the big female tiger shark approached him, Rerekura admits that he hid behind his camera. Though he said that this particular shark was one the friendliest of the group, he noted that it was still an intimidating experience to be approached by a massive predator, especially one known to be dangerous to humans.

“I didn’t feel threatened at all, though it was still nerve-racking having a big animal swim up to you, like she might do a last second charge. But no, there was no aggression… like a puppy dog of the sea. We were stoked.”

Rerekura observed that the shark’s dorsal fin had been injured in the past, though aside from that, she appeared healthy, as Perth Now reports. Repeatedly comparing the animals to puppy dogs, he was quick to point out that at no time did the tiger sharks act in an aggressive fashion, instead remaining calm.

While these tiger sharks were encountering the dive team off Australia, another of their species has been making headlines off the South Carolina coastline. As the Inquisitr previously noted, an exceptionally large tiger shark, named Chessie by researchers, has been tracked heading northward, and has developed a social media following.

The Terra Australis group are currently filming a documentary centering around underwater life off Western Australia. Having restored an old vessel, they are undertaking a voyage from Fremantle to Exmouth, during which they are documenting not only the region’s tiger sharks, but also shipwrecks and other marine life.

[Photo by Terra Australis via the Daily Mail]

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