Watch: Terrified kayaker stalked by great white shark
"Please don't attack me, bro!" A kayaker's escape from a great white shark is caught on camera.
Terrified kayaker stalked by great white shark in New Zealand
A kayaker escaped after being chased by a great white shark off the coast of Northland, New Zealand (Video Credit: Matthew John Patrick Wells via Storyful).
Dramatic video has emerged online of a kayaker escaping after being chased by a great white shark off the coast of Northland, New Zealand, late last month.
Kayak fisherman Matthew John Patrick Wells was documenting his fishing trip with several cameras set up on his boat when he noticed a swell behind him.
"What the … great white! Great white shark!" Wells exclaimed as he quickly began to paddle away.
Video shows the large dorsal fin and tail fin (caudal fin) poking out of the water immediately behind Wells' kayak.
"(Expletive) this, I'm outta here!" exclaimed Wells, terrified of what was an expletive-laden escape.
He quickly cut his live bait on his fishing line.
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Wells said the great white was larger than his kayak. He estimated the creature was at least 4.5 meters (14.8 feet) and more than 1,000 pounds.
"That was a 1,000-pound shark, and he's right behind me!" exclaimed Wells in his video. "Leave me alone! He's still behind me, he's going at my rudder … he's just following me."
Wells told Storyful that the shark followed him for at least eight minutes.
At one point, he exclaimed, "I've lost sight of him … he could be swimming underneath me too."
"When a great white gets to that size, its main food source is marine mammals, and I am a marine mammal right now," said Wells.
As the nerve-wracking chase went on, Wells started talking to the shark and praying to Tangaroa, the god of the sea in Māori culture.
"If I get eaten, it's not going to be much fun."
"Please don't attack me, bro!"
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In the video, Wells said he was about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away from a beach.
"I'm not paddling super fast. I'm trying to keep the paddle strokes nice and quiet so he doesn't feel any sort of aggression towards me … not trying to be too frantic about this. (I) also don't want to go too close to the rocks, then he'll think I'm a seal swimming towards the land."
In a video posted to Wells' YouTube channel, he said it took him an hour to calm down after making it safely to shore.
"You're going into a big animal's domain, you're going into their house," he said.
Well told Storyful, "The shark eventually left me unharmed, but the experience is one I will never forget."
"It was a beautifully terrifying animal, an apex predator deserving of our utmost respect … I’m grateful I wasn’t on the menu this day."