Huge 18ft great white shark attacks surfer in cage as friends scream in horror

dailystar.co.uk:

READ MORE: South Korean missile test goes wrong as it destroys golf course amid North Korea tensionsIt has since been revealed that the shark was a "local legend" and locals had been on the hunt for the beast for some time.Known as Slash, the terrifying monster got its name from the gash on its side, caused by a botched shark tracking project by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa)"This clearly changed his attitude and it appears he became quite aggressive," Peter Scott, owner and operator of the group behind the adventure, Shark Dive NZ, said.

Scott added that Slash was the most aggressive great white he had ever encountered, the Sun reported.He said that there was little public awareness of just how infested New Zealand's waters were with great whites, but stressed any attack was "a genuine mistake on the shark's behalf".He also said that statistics were "far worse" than the reality of shark fatalities."Given the amount of sharks that live here, we have minimal numbers of attacks," he said.However, three years after the documentary was originally released, locals complained that the sea beasts were being attracted to the area on New Zealand's South Island, called Oban, by the shark tours themselves.Fisherman and tour guide Richard Squires said in 2016 that he had noticed a dramatic increase in both the presence of sharks and the number of shark attacks in recent years - adding that his boat had been attacked on two occasions, with the massive sea creatures also helping themselves to a bite of his float."The last few years those sharks have shown an unhealthy interest in boats, and they are acting more aggressively," he said."No other shark cage-diving.