Johannesburg, October 31: Fishermen are asking if this is the massive great white shark that has been stealing their catch, breaching repeatedly within metres of one terrified man’s surf ski.
These photographs of the 4.3m monster have been circulating on the internet, but reports from the South African fishing town of Mossel Bay confirm they are no hoax.
Frighteningly, scientists who dissected the female shark say it was adolescent and not yet fully grown, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Still, it had already grown to a weight of around 700kg when it was caught in shark nets off a popular swimming beach on August 31.
Conservation authorities tried to save the disoriented creature by towing it out to sea but it swam back, became entangled again and died.
@Aaron – Are you for real or just trolling? These animals live in the Sea, it’s is who are invading their territory. Also, Sharks kill 5 people per year yet we kill 100 million…
South African newspaper The Witness quotes a local fisherman who believed it may have been the same shark that breached near his surf ski and stole a barracuda he had been reeling in.
However, scientists said that was unlikely as sharks seldom stay in the same area for long.
They also said it was not the biggest shark ever caught in the area.
A 4.7m great white weighing 1.1 tonnes was caught off nearby Richards Bay in 2002.
—Agencies