Monster White Encounter Off Sydney

While kingy fishing off Sydney at the famous fishing reef 'The Peak,' my deckhand and I were taking a break and eating our lunch after a 4-hour jigging session catching kingfish. Suddenly, we noticed a huge fin approaching us from about 50 meters away. As it got within 20 meters, it turned sideways and circled us twice. It was clearly a great white shark; we could see its face and body. The shark was at least 18 feet long, maybe bigger, as it seemed to dwarf my 6.8m fishing boat. What stood out the most was the ridiculous girth of the shark, which looked at least 6 feet thick from the neck to the top of the head. My deckhand and I had seen many great whites over the years, but nothing close to the size and girth of what would have been a big female. In my 45 years of being on the water, we sighted her a good 25 years ago. Unfortunately, there were no cameras on mobile phones back then, nor could I afford a phone. I have only seen two others in comparison on film, one of them named 'DEEP BLUE' and 'HA'OLE GIRL,' the largest great whites to ever be filmed.

Picture credit Erin Thomas Gavin