Local angler sees rare whale shark | Coffs Coast News | Local News in Coffs Coast

Angler Steven Canute snapped this shot of a 6m whale shark.

LOCAL angler Steven Canute was expecting to catch a few snapper when he took his boat out off Coffs Harbour on Wednesday afternoon but instead, he nearly got something a whole lot bigger.

About 5.30pm, Mr Canute was fishing about 4km off the Coffs Harbour entrance when his boat started moving.

He looked down to find a six metre whale shark nudging at the side.

“It just came up and started playing with the boat, pushing it around,” Mr Canute said.

“It gave me a bit of a fright until I worked out what it was. It was at least two metres longer than my boat.”

He said in his 15 years fishing in local waters, he’d never come across a whale shark.

“I put the picture on a fishing forum online and everyone is amazed,” he said.

Associate professor at the National Marine Science Centre, Steve Smith, said whale shark sightings are uncommon.

“In theory they are unusual but we have seen them before in the region,” Prof. Smith said.

“They are typically tropically distributed but they do wander to sub-tropical regions.

“My guess is that we have warmer temperatures and closer to the coast. We are seeing a lot of unusual things washing up on beaches which indicates oceanic currents are close to the beach."