Close encounter with a great white shark

ROBERT Hogg, his son James and a friend have had a terrifying brush with a four-metre great white shark.The trio were enjoying a "relaxing day in the boat" last week at Middle Beach, about 40km north of Adelaide, when a shark launched out of the water about 3.30pm and tore into a bait bag attached to their 5.4m fibreglass boat.

On the first day of summer weekday shark patrols, the alarm was sounded to get swimmers out of the water at Aldinga's Silver Sands Beach after a huge shark was seen just 100m off shore yesterday.

Mr Hogg described his run-in with the great white as "a bit of a shock".

"We felt a bit of a jerk and then the boat sort of started pulling sideways," Mr Hogg said.
"It was bloody huge.

"I unknotted the burley bag and tried to hold on to it.

"Then the shark showed himself at the back of the boat and had a bit of a taste test."

Mr Hogg said the shark swam around behind the boat for about 10 minutes before swimming off.
"I was a bit worried when the boat was being dragged," he said.

"It did no real harm – just took a bite out of the hydrofoil at the bottom of the motor."

Two sharks were seen yesterday during the first University of South Australia and SES shark patrol flight, in which graduate pilots will notch up flying hours while protecting beachgoers.

UniSA civil aviation head Steve Thatcher said he hoped the new patrols would help avoid great white attacks.