Tiger shark catches WA fishermen by surprise, feasts on crab pot

Crab fishermen in the Pilbara pulled up more than they bargained for yesterday, hauling up a four-metre tiger shark from their drop net.

Brothers Brian and Brandan Haines got the shock of their lives about 1pm when the massive shark decided their mud crab bait would make an easy meal at Spoilbank, a fishing spot off Port Hedland.

“Happened about lunch time, just me and my brother were having a crab, we were just sitting there waiting to do the next pull and saw one of the pots take off,” Brian said.

“There was a big tiger, I’ve seen a few in my life but none as big as him – he was pretty cruisy, rolling over and that, just munching away on the free food.”

The brothers rushed to record the frenzy on their phones and a GoPro camera before posting it to their own social media page.

“It would be four metres easy. We were in a five-metre boat and it wasn’t much shy of that – big shark, awesome to see,” Brian said.

“He destroyed the net, it was wrecked – it all happened too quickly. I was trying to turn my GoPro on but ended up catching it on my phone.”

The railway welder said the encounter hadn’t scared him and he would be back out on the water next week.

“Come off work next Tuesday so might head out and have another go for a fish and maybe a dive,” he said.

“People have said there’s a big fella (shark) that hangs around there (at Spoilbank), a few people have seen him hanging around there.”

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development regional manager north Peter Godfrey said incidents of this kind were rare and people should report shark sightings to Water Police on 9442 8600.

“It is very rare to receive reports of sharks feeding on bait in crab drop nets – the shark may have been attracted by the large amount of bait in the drop net,” he said.