An Australian dad has been captured on camera wrangling a massive shark and returning it to the ocean after his sons mistakenly caught it.
Tristan Turner said that his two sons caught the bronze whaler while fishing off the American River jetty on Kangaroo Island in South Australia over the Easter break.
To free the shark from the fishing line, Mr Turner bravely grabbed its tail and wrangled it to a boat ramp, where he removed the fishing hook from its mouth.
‘We needed to get the hook out and let it go, so I just swam it around to the boat ramp off the rocks, got the hook out of it and got it back swimming again,’ he said.
Mr Turner managed to drag the shark back into the water, and his next move stunned onlookers.
Still holding the shark, Mr Turner dived underwater with the shark and escorted it back into deeper water.
This drew laughter and applause from the gathered crowd.
‘It’s always been a dream of mine to swim with one and I had the opportunity when I let it go, I hung onto its fin and went for a ride,’ Mr Turner said.
Mr Turner and the shark survived the incident unscathed.
He said his son was horrified when he swam off with the shark.
‘They’re a pretty friendly species of shark,’ Mr Turner said.
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Rescuing the shark was all in a day’s work for Mr Turner.
‘People that know me know I love the water, and I do some pretty out there stuff,’ he said.
He said before wrangling sharks he dealt with crocodiles on his mate’s property in the Northern Territory for seven years.
‘My dad thought I’d never come back from there, he definitely thought I’d be eaten,’ Mr Turner said.
Bronze whaler sharks can grow up to 3.5m and 300kg and live up to 32 years.
They are a coastal shark, typically found in continental shelf waters of Southern Australia.
Bronze whalers are a highly active predator and feed on various prey, including fish, squid and crustaceans.
They are not considered dangerous and are not known to attack people unprovoked.
Most close encounters with a bronze whaler shark are harmless.