Below is an entertaining tale of an angler whose boat became a plaything for an 18-foot whale shark off Coffs Coast in Australia. Sightings of whale sharks in the country's New South Wales region are rare, so this goes to show that you can receive a surprise any time you venture to sea. Here's the story and photo pulled from the Coffs Coast Advocate:
Local angler Steven Canute was expecting to catch a few snapper when he took his boat out off Coffs Harbor on Wednesday afternoon but instead, he nearly got something a whole lot bigger.
About 5.30 p.m., Mr Canute was fishing about four kilometers off the Coffs Harbor entrance when his boat started moving.He looked down to find a six-meter whale shark nudging at the side.
“It just came up and started playing with the boat, pushing it around,” Mr Canute said.
“It gave me a bit of a fright until I worked out what it was. It was at least two meters longer than my boat.”
He said in his 15 years fishing in local waters, he’d never come across a whale shark.
“I put the picture on a fishing forum online and everyone is amazed,” he said.
Associate professor at the National Marine Science Center, Steve Smith, said whale shark sightings are uncommon.
“In theory they are unusual but we have seen them before in the region,” Prof. Smith said.
“They are typically tropically distributed but they do wander to sub-tropical regions.
“My guess is that we have warmer temperatures and closer to the coast. We are seeing a lot of unusual things washing up on beaches which indicates oceanic currents are close to the beach."
Photo by angler Steven Canute
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