If you're fond of the sea and marine sports, you need to think twice about your safety. With the growing enroachment of humans into the aquatic territory, don't be surprised if a shark decides to follow you home. Something exactly like that happened in Australia's Shark Bay.
An Australian diver barely escaped with his life after being followed by a large tiger shark for miles. After reaching the shore, he said, on Sunday, October 22, that he was lucky to have escaped alive from such a situation.
The professional spear fisherman had gone underwater when he got accidentally separated from his boat off Western Australia's coast on Friday. He was stranded in water alone after his boat was swept away due to strong currents and a faulty engine.
"I put my head in the water to check I was in the same place and suddenly saw a huge four-metre (13-foot) tiger shark approaching within arm's reach," told the man, identified by local media as John Craig, to Channel Nine. "It was easily the biggest tiger shark I've been in the water with and that's saying something having worked as a dive instructor for over 10 years," he added.
A sandbar whaler had come too close for comfort when Craig decided to take a risk and start swimming towards the shore. He said that the shark would disappear in the shadows for periods of time, but always reappear just behind him. He admitted that he scared to death during the whole situation, thinking that his life would be over any minute.
In a bid to make the shark stay back, the man kept his spear pointed towards it all the way to shore.
The incident occurred near Shark Bay and he was spotted by rescuers at a remote beach after his journey of "pure endurance."
Such incidents of shark encounters and attacks are quite common in Australia, the number rising due to increasing water sports and baiting fish for fun. Attacks which take place when a shark initiates it are called unprovoked, whereas a man-initiated incident is called a provoked attack.
The Taronga Conservation Society Australia website gives detailed statistics of such incidents.
