Great white shark attacks fishing boat to defend crab pot

Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A pair of Australian fishermen used a camera drone to record their scary encounter with a great white shark that attacked their boat.

Simon Lawrence and Blair Fitzgerald said they were fishing about 10 miles off the coast of Coffin Bay in South Australia when they saw one of their crab pots move.

The pair launched a drone to keep watch from the sky and approached the crab pot to find it was being attacked by a 15-foot great white shark.

The fishermen attempted to retrieve their pot, leading the shark to ram the boat and bite at the vessel's motors and GPS equipment.

"Normally they pop their head up and swim away but this one was pretty keen to come back and get his pot," Fitzgerald told 9 News.

Lawrence said he has encountered sharks before, but this incident was unique.

"More aggressive than I've ever had, I've been doing this 12 years now... I've never seen one go the boat like that, he wasn't happy until he got that pot back," Lawrence said.

The fishermen said they lost their load of sand crabs, but the shark's persistence was proof that South Australia has the best crabs around.