Fisherman’s shark horror

A third-generation Warnbro crab fisherman has recalled his encounter with a big great white shark, describing the ordeal like something out of a horror movie.

Steve Da Silva was 1.5km off the coast in Warnbro Sound, near Saxon Reef, with deckhand Luke Christian on Wednesday when the 5m to 6m shark attacked one of their crab pots around 8am.

‘‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’’ Mr Da Silva said.

‘‘It came straight at us, something you see in the movies.

‘‘It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

‘‘I’ve been doing this since I was 16.

‘‘I’ve seen sharks before, but nothing like this.’’

Mr Da Silva said they had pulled in around 20 pots when he and Mr Christian noticed the shark heading towards their 7m-long commercial fishing boat.

‘‘It came straight at us,' he said.

‘‘I thought it was going to land in the boat, it had so much force behind it.’’

Mr Da Silva believes the shark was following the pot, which was being pulled in by a winch, towards his boat.

‘‘The shark launched that fast and only saw the boat at the last minute.’’

Mr Da Silva said the shark turned around at the last minute, hitting the boat ‘‘full force’’ with its tail.

‘‘Lucky we had a big boat otherwise it would have tipped us over,’’ he said.

Despite being shaken by the attack, Mr Da Silva and Mr Christian continued pulling in the remaining 80 crab pots before returning to shore.

A fisherman with 16-years experience, Mr Da Silva said the experience had not deterred him from returning to sea.

The two men were unaware of the shark attack on a surf ski paddler in Mullallo 45 minutes before their experience.

The attack was reported to the Department of Fisheries.