Great White Shark Jumps Onto Australian Fisherman's Boat Who Says It Was 'Just A Mundane Thing'

A 73-year-old Australian fisherman spoke of an encounter with a 2.7 meter-long great white shark that launched himself onto his boat, while he went fishing at Evans Head in South Wales, Australia on Saturday afternoon.

He spoke to ABC News about the experience and said this incident would not stop him from fishing again and added "It’s not a great story, it’s just a mundane thing that just happened and it’s over and done with, but something that I’ll remember."

Evans Head resident Terry Selwood, 73, was fishing offshore at Evans Heads on Saturday afternoon, when the shark suddenly jumped out of the water and launched itself onto his 4.5 meter boat.

The shark’s pectoral fin hit the 73-year-old man on his forearm and knocked him off his feet, while it tried to scale the boat’s engine and landed on the floor. "The thing hit me in the forearm, spun me around and knocked me off my feet," Selwood said.

"There I was on all fours and he’s looking at me and I’m looking at him and then he started to do the dance around and shake and I couldn’t get out quick enough on to the gunwale," Selwood told ABC News.

"I was losing a fair amount of blood, I was stunned. I couldn’t register what happened and then I thought, 'Oh my God, I’ve got to get out of here,'" he added.

Selwood managed to make a distress call and alerted marine rescue volunteers at Evans Head from his radio, while he took shelter on the nose of his boat. A crew rescued him from the boat, while the 200kg shark was still on board.

“For some unknown reason he just launched himself out of the water and he must have come up four feet out of the water to clear my outboard motor and drop straight in the boat,” Selwood said, adding that there was no specific reason the shark had breached.

Bill Bates, a member of Marine Rescue Evans Head, told BBC news his crew found Selwood standing on one side of his boat and his hand was covered in blood.

"We offloaded the owner into our boat and gave him immediate first aid and stabilised the bleeding," Bates said. "It was a 5m boat so you can imagine there was no more room for people when the shark was in there."

Read: Shark Attacks 2017: Diver Survives Bull Shark Mauling Near Australia's Great Barrier Reef

New South Wales police told the Guardian they had been called to the scene after reports of a shark attack. Selwood was treated on shore for the minor injury to his arm and later taken to Lismore hospital by ambulance paramedics.

New South Wales fishing authorities said the animal had died and would be undergoing an autopsy, which was a standard practice for "any deceased shark in good condition".

"This enables us to take tissue and blood samples for ongoing science and research purposes," a Department of Primary Industries spokeswoman said. They took the shark to their Wollongbar, New South Wales office to confirm the animal’s age and gender.

Selwood said he had never had such an encounter with a shark in nearly 60 years of fishing.

"I’ve had ’em come up and brush the side of my boat, I’ve had a white pointer swim around my boat, I’ve had ’em take fish off my line but I’ve never had one do this," he told ABC News.

"I think next time I might find a crocodile to wrestle, just to stay in the limelight," he joked.