Footage has emerged of the moment a spearfisher is confronted by a shark heading directly for him in the open sea – and he is forced to shoot it in defence.
The video shows two Australian spearfishermen swimming in the open water at some distance from their boat, in an area reportedly off the coast of Queensland.
The camera appears to be attached to one of the spearfisher’s heads and as he ducks his face into the water to look at the scene below, it is clear there is a school of three sharks swimming beneath them.
The sharks are reportedly bronze whaler sharks, which is one of the species known to attack humans, though infrequently.
“They’re getting quite close, aren’t they?” the spearfisher’s partner says from a short distance, while the spearfisher replies: “We’re not going to be able to spear anything with them around.”
The pair decide to head back to the boat when the spearfisher looks beneath the water once more and sees one of the bronze whaler sharks swimming directly at him.
He shoots the shark with his speargun just seconds before it reaches him. The dead shark is then seen sinking down towards the ocean floor as his friend exclaims: “F***ing hell!”
