Professional underwater cinematographer Dean Spraakman captured what some are saying is the world’s most battered great white shark that has ever been recorded on film.
“I noticed he had scars on him but I didn’t realise to what length until I reviewed the footage later,” Dean told The Sun.
He and a crew were off the coast of Neptune Islands in South Australia where thousands of great whites are known to live when he spotted the 11ft apex predator.
Dean filmed from the safety of a divers cage as the battered beast curiously swam up to him to investigate who and what he was.
“He came very close, within an arm’s reach from me- sometimes when you get a good shark like that, they just want to come and look you in the eye, just have a really good look at who you are,” he said.
The shark had massive scars that covered the entire length of its body, showing it had gotten into altercations throughout its life.
Dean said, “You can only speculate what happened there and to be honest no one knows or ever really know what causes that sort of damage to a shark but the poor guy had a bit of a hard time I think.”
Even though there was no way of being certain, the team discussed all the possibilities of what might have caused this.
They speculated that it could have possibly been done by boat propellers or perhaps it got into a fight with another shark, giant squid, or another large marine animal.
“No one has ever seen a shark in a condition like this before,” he explained. “We see sometimes down there the white sharks tracking stingrays because they hunt and eat them and we thought they chase them into shallow reef areas where it’s quite sharp and it might get stuck and cause that sort of damage.”
What they knew for sure is no one has ever come across a shark this badly scarred up and filmed it. Take a look at the shark footage below and see this beautiful creature for yourself.