The terrifying experience of being devoured by a shark has been caught on camera after one of the predators attacked a GoPro.
Raymond Pascoe had the camera underwater during a fishing trip off Queensland, Australia, when the day’s catch was being filleted and the leftovers thrown overboard.
Initially the feeding frenzy was only lemon sharks – which are thought to be non-threatening to humans – but then bull sharks crashed the party.
Footage shows a shark’s enormous jaws opening up to swallow the camera whole – and the murky interior behind the predator’s razor-sharp teeth.
The terrifying experience of being devoured by a shark has been caught on camera after one of the predators attacked a GoPro. The predator is shown, right, moments before striking
Savage: Raymond Pascoe had the camera underwater during a fishing trip off Queensland, Australia, when the day’s catch was being filleted and the leftovers thrown overboard. A shark swooped in and locked its jaws around the device
Initially the feeding frenzy was only lemon sharks – which are thought to be non-threatening to humans – but then bull sharks crashed the party and one devoured the camera
Moments later the device was spat out again before it resurfaced thanks to the float it was attached to.
Bull sharks – which can grow up 11ft long – are territorial by nature, easily provoked, and have been blamed for the majority of near-shore shark attacks on humans.
Mr Pascoe, who was visiting the Swains Reef National Park with his wife Liz, described the incident.
He said: ‘Liz and I had been fishing in the morning and the deckhands were filleting our catch whilst we had lunch.
‘The filleted fish carcasses are normally thrown back over the side, or used to feed the gentle lemon sharks.
‘Normally the bull sharks stay down at the bottom but I had noticed – and commented to someone immediately before the bite – that they were getting more aggressive and had come up to the surface.
The camera was fixed to the on the end of a pole, which was fastened to Mr Pascoe’s hand by a strap – but they were no match for the bull shark
Mr Pascoe, who works at a natural gas plant in his hometown of Gladstone, Queensland, found his camera was still rolling and had captured the entire incident after the device floated back to the surface
Raymond Pascoe (pictured) was visiting the Swains Reef National Park with his wife Liz when the incident happened
The bull shark devoured the camera and kept it inside its mouth for a few seconds before spitting it back out
‘In the footage you can see one of the bull sharks tussle with a lemon shark for a fish carcass which stirred them up even more.
‘I didn’t see the bite coming as the GoPro looks nothing like a fish carcass and the camera was probably only one foot under the water.’
The 47-year-old had his camera on the end of a pole, which was fastened to his hand by a strap – but they were no match for the bull shark.
He recalled: ‘I would like to say that I tussled with the shark as I had a good grip on the camera pole, but it happened so quickly that I had no chance.
‘The camera and pole were ripped from my grip and the wrist strap broke instantly.
‘My first thought was ‘what the hell just happened?’ My second was ‘jump in after it’ and my third was ‘don’t be stupid’. I then thought ‘that is a lot of money, can I explain that to my insurance?
The terrifying footage, captuered off the coast of Australia, shows what it is like to be eaten by a shark
Mr Pascoe said the camera (pictured) bobbed back to the surface after being spat out thanks to a float it was attached to
‘Immediately afterwards I turned to the people on the boat and said that a shark just took my GoPro, which provoked some animated discussion for about 12 seconds.
‘Then the camera’s bright orange float surfaced 15m from the main boat. It took me about 30secs to untie the tender and drive over to pick the camera up.’
Mr Pascoe, who works at a natural gas plant in his hometown of Gladstone, Queensland, found his camera was still rolling and had captured the entire incident.
In the footage, the GoPro is swarmed by sharks when one peels off and grabs it in its jaws, chewing the device up before spitting it back out again.
Since Mr Pascoe bought the camera to record his kitesurfing, he’d deliberately got a pole that would float were it dropped, with a bright handle so it could be seen.
It meant the camera floated back to the surface – and despite some gouges from the shark’s teeth, it was in good working order.
Mr Pascoe, who uploaded his video to YouTube, shot the footage in a part of Swains Reef called Perfect Lagoon, during his holiday aboard The Eastern Voyager charter boat.