'Mega sharks' caught off coast of Western Australia

Two Esperance anglers made international headlines after they reeled in two massive sharks off WA’s north over the New Year.

Joshua Butterworth and Jethro Bonnichta spent 10 days fishing north of Carnarvon and caught an impressive 30 sharks.

Photos of a four metre hammerhead and an even bigger tiger shark attracted worldwide attention when US based fishing company Rogue Offshore posted it on their Facebook page.

Mr Butterworth, who sent the photos to Rogue Offshore, said the creatures were returned safely to the ocean.

“We take a lot of care in making sure they go back and making sure they are going to swim off strongly,” he said.

“We could have killed them and claimed records but we let them go because they were still healthy.”

The passionate young angler said it took about 90 minutes to catch the hammerhead, which stripped 800 metres of line three times.

“You have to run back to the sand dunes to make sure the angle of the line is right, there is a lot more to it than people think,” he said.

Mr Bonnichta collapsed from exhaustion after he reeled in the hammerhead.

The boys did not let the abundance of big sharks deter them from sharing their habitat.

“We were fishing straight out of our camp and we were swimming where we went fishing everyday,” he said.

“These sharks are fine, they are well fed. It’s the ones near Esperance we worry about.”