I’d like to see Mick Fanning punch this monster and get away with it, shark-abusing Ozzie bastard.

A six metre tiger shark was caught off Seven Mile Beach in New South Wales, a popular Australian surf spot. There is some confusion as to whether or not the shark was killed by fishermen or already dead when they hauled it aboard, although that will do little to soothe the nerves of those who surf in the area. Below from the Daily Mail:

[It is] reported that a fisherman named Matthew came forward to confirm that it was him that pulled the massive shark out of the water off the Tweed Coast ‘a while ago’, even taking the jaws as a souvenir.

‘I was the one that took that photo and I was the one that caught that fish,’ he said.

Matthew, who has not been formally identified, said he caught the shark 14 miles off Tweed Heads about three weeks ago.  He told the newspaper that he had set his eyes on a smaller shark, a six-foot long hammerhead, when the huge tiger shark appeared – and ate it.

‘I was fighting the hammerhead shark and he[the tiger shark] came up and swallowed it,’ Matthew [said].

It might just be that Matthew is spinning something of a yarn, mind you, with differing accounts of exactly where the shark is now appearing:

Other reports claim that the body was handed over to authorities with the CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation], however a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the shark has not been accounted for by CSIRO staff.

‘We’ve seen the photos but we haven’t got any information that it has been handed in or where it was caught,’ he said.

‘There has been no indication from staff that it has been handed in to a CSIRO site, all we can say is that it is a tiger shark and not a white.’ 

It doesn’t really matter who you believe, I guess, the fact remains that there are sharks this size cruising an area frequented by men and women basically dressed up as seals floating atop the water’s surface.

[source:dailymail]