Diver fights off hammerhead shark using camera stick in terrifying footage

A diver in Australia has recorded the dramatic moment he had to fight off a six-foot hammerhead shark with his camera stick after it repeatedly attacked him in a remote bay of Cape York, Queensland.

Dion Creek was spear-fishing in Princess Charlotte Bay and looking for crayfish when he inadvertently filmed the encounter on his GoPro camera.

Video of the incident shows the hammerhead shark lunging towards the diver as he tried to fend it off with the GoPro stick.

The diver later posted the video on Facebook, and admitted he was lucky to escape unharmed in an interview about the episode with 9News Australia.

"I was about to adjust the camera I just caught the shark coming out the corner of my eye," he said.  

Mr Creek said he had to hit the shark three times with the camera stick as it kept coming back, before it finally lost interest on after the third attempt.

"I pushed the first time, it came at me again. I hit it the second time and I pushed it away the third time, just to push away from it,” he said.

He said that looking back he realises he is quite lucky to have evaded the attack unharmed, but at that time he was unfazed. 

Next time he is hunting he will bring a buddy, he said, adding that he does not “want to be a statistic”. And joking about his good fortune, he added: "I'll be buying myself a lottery ticket."

Hammerheads are aggressive hunters and get their name from their oddly shaped heads, with their eyes separated wide apart. The average size for an adult hammerhead is 13ft, but the species can grow up to 20ft in length and weigh up to 1,000 pounds.

Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File says that there have been 15 attacks involving hammerheads since their records began, though none have proved fatal.

The year 2020 has proved to be among the more dangerous for reported shark attacks worldwide and involving all species, with some 71 incident so far globally. Australia has accounted for 22 of them.