Sydney, NSW = Australian authorities have assured swimmers and surfers at Bondi Beach that lifeguards routinely patrol for sharks after footage surfaced recently, showing a massive great white savagely attacking a smaller blue shark attached to a line alongside a fishing boat.
The incident near Sydney occurred several months ago but the footage wasn't posted until this month, and it has stirred emotions about the possibility of such enormous predators lurking so close to shore off Australia's busiest beach.
"We share the water with the sharks and there's no getting away from that," a spokesman for the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries told the Herald Sun. "We run regular patrols along the beach and out further through the bay to make sure our swimmers are protected from any threat."
Henry Minter, one of the fishermen who was aboard the boat, said the encounter took place only 200 meters, or about the shake of a tail, beyond the shore. He estimated the shark's length to be at least 18 feet.
"We were fishing off the coast of Bondi Beach and were on board a 32-foot powerboat," he said, via email. "Shortly after catching a small blue shark we tied a rope off to it's tail and the large great white appeared obviously attracted by the frenzy of the blue shark.
"We were amazed as the shark bit the whole blue shark in half and proceeded to play tug of war with us with the remaining tail half. Never seen anything this big so close to Sydney and has been a real shock to the Sydney fishing and surfing community."
Experts who viewed the video could not verify it was, in fact, Bondi, but there is little reason to doubt the location, since white sharks are known to frequent that part of the Australian coast.
What's incredible is the power and fierce determination of the predator as it tries to devour the blue shark, which was tied tail-first to a thick rope.
What seems incredibly risky are the actions of the fishermen, who traded turns trying to touch the larger shark's snout.
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