A four-metre saltwater crocodile gave two Northern Territory fishermen the fright of their lives when he ripped a hole in their boat’s outboard motor during a shock night-time attack.
After spending the day catching barramundi, Dean Shaw and Peter Dienhoff anchored their 5.5m Hydro-Craft near the mouth of the South Alligator River, about 220 kilometres east of Darwin.
They were woken what they thought was a large log bumping into the boat.
“Later the bump turned into a violent shake and the boat was rocking,” said Mr Dienhoff. “The cowling nearly got torn off by the crocodile which approached with no hissing or growling as they normally do before an attack … it just slipped out of the water and grabbed the outboard.”
He said there was no motive for the attack, in that there were no fish on the boat and no odours coming from the boat.
“The croc must like 175 Suzukis,” he said.
Fishing buddy Dean Shaw said it felt like the croc was trying to ‘death roll’ the vessel.
“I’m just glad we were in a big boat. If it was a small boat there would have been a fatality,” he said. “We weren’t stressing too much – just dumbfounded as to why it attacked. Maybe it had a vendetta against boats.”
Park rangers and police have been notified and will consider removing the rogue reptile from the river.
