STEVE Bracken and his fishing mates were bobbing in the ocean off Sydney when they got a visitor on Sunday.

A very big visitor, with very large sharp teeth.



The large, mature great white shark, totally unafraid, circled and cruised around their flybridge cruiser for several minutes.



It's illegal to catch great whites in Australia and Steve and the crew happily cast out fish frames attached to a rope to the shark, which tasted the offerings cautiously.



Their encounter with the great white, around 4m long, happened in 1000m of water, 35 nautical miles north east of Sydney Heads.

Originally published as Great White Shark filmed off Sydney