FISHERMAN SHARES HIS PRICELESS REACTION AS GREAT WHITE CIRCLES HIS KAYAK

Australian fisherman, Matthew Smith, shared the terrifying moment when a four meter long great white shark circled his kayak off the NSW mid-north coast.

About 1.5km off Black Head Beach, north of Tuncurry, Smith was fishing for snapper on a kayak. Suddenly the beast appeared in the waters leaving him frozen in fear.

"Holy s**t! No! No f**k off!".

In an interview with 9News, Smith said that; "I just looked next to me and the shark was just gliding past, looking straight at me."

Smith’s friend, Nick O’Brien, caught the moment from the skies with his drone. O’Brien could see the shark approaching the kayak but did not have any way of alerting his friend.

"It was a bit of a shock. I just sort of started worrying, thinking, oh, 'hopefully this goes alright'," O’Brien said.

After the shark circled the kayak, the beast swam towards the anchor attached to the tail of his kayak, prompting him to thrown it overboard.

"You can have it!" Smith said in the footage.

Smith's brother rushed over to him after hearing the commotion when the shark swam away after the anchor disappeared.

After the terrifying encounter, Smith said that it inspired him to leave the kayak behind and upgrade to a bigger vessel for his next fishing adventures.

"The tinny might get wet for the next couple of weeks and the kayak might stay in the shed."

This is not the first encounter of 2020 for someone in the Australian waters, seven Australians have been killed in shark attacks this year. Experts explained that a La Niña weather event is creating cooler water temperatures. This temperatures are favoured by great white sharks which draw them closer to the shore.

In January, diver Gary Johnson, 57, was killed by a great white shark while diving with his wife near Esperance in WA.

In April another swimmer, Wildlife ranger Zachary Robba, 23, was mauled to death by a shark off the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland.

Surfer Rob Pedretti, 60, was killed by a shark at Salt Beach near Kingscliff in far northern NSW in June.

Spearfisher Matthew Tratt, 36, was mauled to death on Fraser Island in Queensland in July, and later in July, surfer Mani Hart-Deville, 15, was also killed by a great white shark at Wooli Beach, near Grafton on the NSW North Coast.

In September Nick Slater, 46, was mauled to death at Greenmount Beach on the Gold Coast.

And lastly, father-of-two, Andrew Sharpe, was killed by a shark while surfing at Kelp Beds in Wylie Bay in October.