A nature-loving builder had a terrifying brush with an apex predator when a shark charged him as he sheltered on a rock ledge where he had been filming it tearing into a whale carcass.
Benjamin Reid made his way down to Wattamolla beach, south of Sydney, on Thursday with some friends to see where a dead whale was floating just past the southern point of the narrow inlet.
‘I paddle boarded out, and one [shark] was following me, and going underneath. You could see the tail on one side [of the paddleboard] and the head on the other,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Benjamin Reid a builder and father-of-two captured the amazing footage from a safe ledge
The whale carcass floated past the point on its way to a beach south of Sydney where it is stuck
‘My mate was yelling from the rocks, it scared the crap out of me.’
The father-of-two from Bundeena quickly paddled back in, but then around the rocks he and his friends found a ledge next to a steep drop off that was protected from the ocean and where the sharks couldn’t get at him easily.
Mr Reid was able to stand on the ledge in waist-deep water, about two metres away from the carcass as it floated in.
‘It was pretty amazing to see.
‘I was in there an hour and a half. I got heaps of GoPro footage. There were a few sharks floating around, only one near the carcass.
‘It was keeping everything else away. From the cliffs you could see the dark shadows out further, they were circling out back.’
The dead whale has washed up on the remote but popular Wattamolla beach south of Sydney
The footage clearly shows the alpha shark tearing into the body of the whale as it floats, then charging right up to the builder from Bundeena as he stood on his ledge.
‘That one shark was coming up to me trying to get me out of the water – he thought I was competition for his food’
It is not known what species of shark it is, but it is possible that it is a great white shark, the most feared ocean predator.
‘So rad to see this first hand #nature at its best #ilovesharks’, he posted with his stunning video on Facebook.
The rotting carcass, thought to be from an endangered male sei whale, is estimated to be up to 20m long and to weigh up to 40 tonnes.
The authorities have warned people to stay out of the water as the sharks are dangerous
It has since washed up on Wattamolla beach in the Royal National Park south of Sydney.
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service has warned people to stay out of the water as the body has attracted schools of hungry sharks to the area.
The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage has said it will not be attempting to remove the carcass today.
The NPWS are still deciding on the best way to remove the dead whale, a job complicated by the remoteness of the beach and the difficult terrain.