On Tuesday, the 25-year-old was back on board, where he spoke to The Age, on the boys\u2019 fourth consecutive day of fishing. \u201c[The shark] went really hard. I\u2019m lucky it was only a small one. Otherwise, I would never have even got it close to the boat,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all watched it on the telly, and watched all the footage. It was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ocean Grove carpenter\u2019s catch is one of four Victorian shark sightings reported this month via the crowdsourcing shark alert app, Dorsal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two back-to-back sightings were reported this week at Portsea Beach on the Mornington Peninsula: one, a 2.5-metre white shark about 150 metres offshore on Sunday afternoon, and the second, on Monday morning, about 50 metres from the shoreline.<\/p>\n A four-metre white shark was reportedly spotted off Lorne Pier near the Great Ocean Road by fisherman Steven Cauchi on December 23, about 50 metres from shore. \u201cI think I need a bigger rod,\u201d Cauchi wrote on social media when sharing a video of the creature.<\/p>\n The Victorian Fisheries Authority, which is responsible for alerting swimmers to sharks threatening their safety, has not detected any dangerous animals warranting a warning so far this summer.<\/p>\n To meet their warning threshold, sharks have to be at least three metres long and either a great white, tiger or bull shark.<\/p>\n Travis Dowling, the authority\u2019s chief executive, said incidental catches of great white sharks<\/a> were more common this time of year, as schools of salmon and other bait fish moved around Australia.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for this time of year, with so many Victorians at the beach, for there to be an increase in shark sightings,\u201d Dowling said.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people are doing absolutely the right thing, and when they are inadvertently or accidentally hooking a white shark, they are taking care to ensure that shark is released unharmed, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n Victoria has not had a fatal shark attack in more than 35 years.<\/p>\n