Let Off The Hook: Snagged Great White Shark Rescue

The dramatic footage was shot by Lars Liedberg, 38, who had just finished having breakfast in a restaurant, in Plettenberg Bay South Africa, when he saw a struggle on the beach below.

However, multimedia designer Liedberg, who is originally from Zimbabwe, said that the man seemed more concerned with retrieving his hook than saving the juvenile shark.

"I realised the fisherman was in the midst of an intense battle with some sort of fish and it had to be big.

“I saw the dark shape in the waves and realised it was a shark.The fisherman and another man then pulled the fish in and it lay in the shallow water thrashing about while the pair tried to retrieve the hook.

“I suggested they just cut it because the shark seemed distressed but this guy did not want to waste a hook.”

Great white sharks are a protected species in South Africa and the fishing of the animal is illegal.

Liedberg said that following a prolonged effort to get the fish back in the water, the distraught shark was eventually helped into the ocean and was able to swim away.

“Eventually the hook was levered out of the shark's gaping jaws. The men then grabbed it by the tail and tried to drag it out into deeper waters.

“The shark actually started to mock attack, whipping its head up and snapping its mouth. It could have taken one of their arms clean off.

“They slowly managed to get it in water deep enough for it to swim away but it remained lifeless.

“The crowd was standing in stunned silence waiting for it to move, myself included.

“Eventually they pushed it away from them into the deeper blue. All you could see was the beautiful tail fin above the darker deeper water.

“It must have mustered its last strength and its tail started moving and just like that the shark was was gone.”