About four kilometres off Victoria’s coastline, Oscar Ford became trapped in a battle with a powerful predator.
The 25-year-old carpenter was fishing with his younger cousins off Thirteenth Beach, near Barwon Heads, on Sunday afternoon, when he felt the force of an animal so powerful, his cousins’ response was immediate: “Get the GoPro”, and “holy shit”.
A massive splash exploded around their balloon in the water, and a 35-minute fight ensued as the boys drove after the shark; Ford attempting to reel the animal in, while it dove deep alongside his grandfather’s boat.
They all thought it was a mako shark, when the 25-year-old suddenly saw the creature’s white belly and distinctive grey colour, “like a submarine gliding through the water”. It was a two-metre great white.
“I’ve hooked a white,” Ford screamed, yelling and whooping while working to heave in the animal.
His excited 10-year-old cousin, Maxwell, asked, “Do I call Chockers?“, referring to a friend of Ford’s. The 25-year-old answered: “Nah, it’s alright.
“This is going on the news, mate.”
Ford captured the shark biting their boat on video, and swimming alongside it, before he released the animal without pulling it aboard – knowing full well that the sharks are a protected species.
On Tuesday, the 25-year-old was back on board, where he spoke to The Age, on the boys’ fourth consecutive day of fishing. “[The shark] went really hard. I’m lucky it was only a small one. Otherwise, I would never have even got it close to the boat,” Ford said.
