Spear fisherman jabs great white shark to scare it off (video)

A fisherman got terrifyingly close to a great white shark off the coast of Queensland this weekend.

Trevor Ketchion was spear fishing off the Gold Coast with some friends when he spotted the shark not far from his group.

According to 9 News, rather than wait and see what happened next, he decided to take matters into his own hands and dived down and jabbed the shark in the back in an attempt to shoo it away.

white from trevor on Vimeo.

Whereas most people would swim in the opposite direction as fast as they possibly could, Trevor went straight towards it as he knew that a prod with the spear might make the shark think he was a predator, reports the Daily Mail.

The tactic appears to work and the shark steadily swims away.

The video was uploaded to Vimeo after the friends' close encounter on Sunday.

The group were right to be cautious as there has been a number of shark attacks reported in recent weeks.

At the beginning of September, a British expat was killed by a shark while swimming in Byron Bay.