A spear fisherman has shared incredible footage of his close call with a huge bull shark in waters off Port Stephens.
The footage shows Anton Smilek swimming in clear waters at Zenith beach on Easter Monday when the camera pans and a huge bull shark can be seen swimming directly towards him.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Fisherman’s incredible close call near NSW beach.
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The shark then turns and heads towards another diver.
“Bull shark! Bull shark!” Smilek is heard yelling.
Smilek then begins to growl at the predator in a desperate attempt to scare it off.
Eventually, the shark is seen retreating back into deeper water.
Smilek told 7NEWS.com.au he believes the bull shark was between 3.5m to 4m long.
“It wasn’t what I wanted to see,” he said.
“I charged at it to scare it off.”
Smilek said the ordeal ended with a gruelling 500m swim back to shore.
The footage comes just a few months after Sydneysider Lauren O’Neill survived being bitten by what is believed to be a bull shark while she was swimming near a jetty at Elizabeth Bay, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, in January.
It was the first recorded shark attack in Sydney Harbour in more than a decade.
At the time O’Neill thanked her “heroic and very kind neighbours” for the critical assistance they quickly provided.
The attack prompted debate over anti-shark measures amid concerns warmer waters are attracting more bull sharks to the harbour.
