Man does backstroke next to giant bull shark caught off Tweed Heads
A shark fisherman has shared footage of his friend doing backstroke next to a bull shark just off the coast on New South Wales.
Tweed Heads resident Joel Merchant regularly shares videos of his shark encounters on Facebook.
On Good Friday he uploaded footage of himself and his friend Daniel, who performed backstroke alongside his bull shark catch.
Mr Merchant aimed to show people how much the shark population had grown.
Daniel didn’t seem bothered at all that he was swimming next to one of the most dangerous sea creatures.
Mr Merchant told Daily Mail that he had seen a rise tiger sharks, bull sharks and dusky whales during his time fishing.
He said he had seen a ‘record number’ of huge sharks off the coast of northern NSW, which he put down to not many people catching them.
“There's more than in recent years... there's not pressure on them, there's no fisheries that are targeting them anymore,” he said.
Mr Merchant is a commercial fisherman in the area.
He said the industry was heavily regulated and licences cost ‘a lot of money’ so he didn’t consider it a sustainable profession long term.
Last week Sea Shepherd’s Mike Dicks told 7 News he saw fisherman targeting sharks on a daily basis.
He felt many men fished for sharks to get ‘selfies’ however he warned shark fishing lured more dangerous sea creatures closer to shores and put lives at risk.
“It shouldn’t be allowed to happen on metropolitan swimming beaches,” Mr Dicks said.
