Experts speculate the cause of sharks flying on Australian fishing boats

The expert said that the shark jumped on the fisherman's boat due to being caught in the hook or too engrossed in chasing the prey.

Fisherman Terry Selwood in Australia on 27/5 injured in his hand when a 2.7m white shark, weighing 200kg rushed on the boat and bumped into him in the waters off New South Wales state, according to BBC.

According to George H. Burgess, expert on sharks at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, USA, this is a very rare incident. Sharks rarely fly out of the water, most of the images of sharks rising to the surface are staged using bait to lure fish.

Picture 1 of Experts speculate the cause of sharks flying on Australian fishing boats
Identify the great white shark on Mr. Selwood's boat.(Photo: ABC News).

Burgess proposed three hypotheses to explain the 200kg shark's release on Selwood fishermen's boat. The shark can jump on a boat for unknown reasons, or is engrossed in chasing the bait pulled by Mr. Selwood. The last hypothesis is that the fish gets caught in the hook and is dragged onto the boat by Selwood.

While hunting, sharks can use energy from their extremely healthy muscles in combination with fins to accelerate and soar to the surface. However, Burgess believed that the hypothesis that the unproductive fish rushed into a fisherman's boat was the least convincing.The most plausible explanation for this is that the fish was caught in the hook.

White sharks are protected by Australian law, deliberately hunting for this species is illegal, but many still accidentally get caught in the hook or victim of poachers.

Burgess stressed that before the results of the shark's autopsy were found for the hook trace, all the hypotheses that the researchers posed for the incident were only speculations.

  1. 2-white shark sharks on the boat of fishermen