Advertisement

Video: Mako Shark Attacks Boat Engine off Australia

The 10-footer leaves scratches in engine's lower unit.
Mako.Shark.Biting.Engine

Mako.Shark.Biting.Engine

Because of a keen sense of electrical currents that emanate from metal, mako sharks (and many species of shark, for that matter) have long been known by anglers to bite at a boat’s engines when encountered on the water — and now a video circulating the web from Western Australia shows just that.

Damien Dwyer was fishing with his wife some 12 miles off the coastal town of Dampier last September when they accidentally bumped into a 10-foot mako swimming casually on the surface.

Dwyer tried unsuccessfully to catch the big shark with a chunk of tuna, according to a story in Perth Now, claiming that “all it wanted to do was bite the boat … it was like it was angry at it.”

Advertisement

With a camera rolling, the husband-and-wife duo watched as the big fish took several swipes at the engine. Dwyer said the shark scratched up the lower unit pretty good. But he wasn’t too worried, telling Perth Now it made the engine “look cool!”

Still, no one believed him about the encounter at first. “None of the locals had ever heard of (a mako) up there until I actually showed them the video.”

Now, they’re believers.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement