'It's the biggest I’ve ever seen': Giant 7 metre great white shark sighted off Adelaide beach
A massive seven metre Great White shark has shut down an Adelaide beach, with speculation it could be the biggest shark ever caught on camera.
The shark was photographed 100m offshore from Merino Rocks in South Australia, causing Nippers events to be cancelled and swimmers to be evacuated from the water on Sunday.
A crew member travelling in the Westpac helicopter snapped a photo of the giant creature and said its size did not translate on camera.
"It's the biggest I’ve ever seen as a crew member in the Westpac chopper, we put it down as 7m, the photo really doesn't do it justice,” he wrote, captioning the image which was posted on Shark Alerts South Australia’s Facebook page.
The size of the shark has been debated online, with some social media users claiming the length has been exaggerated.
“Can't be 7m they are getting carried away that would be a metre bigger than record books! Still too close to home,” one user wrote.
“7m.... if it was 7m it would be making the news world wide. Please don’t give out false information…” another man posted.
Shark Alerts SA responded to several comments by reminding people that monstrously large sharks are ‘rare but not non-existent’.
“These guys are professionals so I can ensure you no lies on the length here.”
To estimate the size, the crew compared the length of the shark to that of their jet boat in the water, which is 6m long.
“The shark was bigger,” the group said.
On the same day as the sighting of the huge great white, another was spotted off North Haven - only 30km away.
This one was estimated to be 4m in length.
Currently, the biggest shark recorded on camera was a pregnant great white, which measured 6m in length off the coast of Mexico.
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