Dean Ford had just jumped into the water to retrieve his bream lure from a bed of weed near the Bermagui Fisherman’s Cooperative.

Glenn Hillier and Ross Howson noticed a huge tail sticking out of the water just behind their mate.

They yelled for him to get out of the water as it appeared a shark was swimming toward him.

“Ross just grabbed Dean in time before the shark grabbed him and at this stage I had secured the shark out of harms way,” Glenn said.

Glenn had grabbed a gaff and pulled the large thresher shark from the water.

The boys later estimated the shark to weigh around 150 kilograms.

Dean doesn’t plan to do anymore night swimming in the harbour.

Although occasionally sighted in shallow, inshore waters, thresher sharks are primarily pelagic; they prefer the open ocean, venturing no deeper than 500 metres, according to Wikipedia.

Named for and easily recognised by their exceptionally long, thresher-like tail or caudal fins (which account for 1/3 of their total body length), thresher sharks are active predators; the tail is actually used as a weapon to stun prey.

By far the largest of the three species is the Common thresher, Alopias vulpinus, which may reach a length of 6.1 metres and a weight of over 500 kilograms.

Pelagic schooling fish (such as bluefish, juvenile tuna, and mackerel), squid and cuttlefish are the primary food items of the thresher sharks. They are known to follow large schools of fish into shallow waters.