A DIVER who fended off a frenzied two-metre bronze whaler shark with his underwater camera has described the close call as a "good buzz".

Former construction diver turned underwater cinematographer Johnny Debnam, 27, was filming mates spearfishing about 3km off Dampier earlier this month.

A bronze whaler materialised out of the depths and tore into a bluebone grouper Mr Debnam had on his float line.

``I was filming and the shark came in and stole my fish, then it came and had a closer look at me,'' he said.

``I had to push it away with the camera. It circled me at few more times, bumped the boat, had a look at the motor, circled a few more times and then took off.

``It was a good buzz. I had to focus and concentrate on making sure it didn't get past the camera.

``I knew it could be potentially dangerous. You take the risk into account. It was investigating more than anything, it was excited by the fish in the water.''

Mr Debnam said seeing sharks was common as he filmed up and down the west coast.

``You see plenty of them. Especially if we're spearfishing, they'll come in pretty close. I've had a couple of encounters like that one,'' he said.

The conservationist and ocean lover has teamed up with fellow divers to for the marine film company Terra Australis.

``We pretty much film everything to do with the ocean but we always seem to be filming sharks,'' he said.

Many sharks that approached boats - including the bronze whaler he encountered - had broken jaws, Mr Debnam said.

``We've noticed it a lot. I think they can end up with a broken jaw if they're caught on a fishing line. Once they're injured, maybe they can't hunt as well so they have to be a bit more aggressive and that means they come in and investigate boats or people spearfishing,'' he said.

The Terra Australis crew also try and tag any sharks they are able to.

``We've tagged quite a few tiger sharks off the North-West lately. We had a 430kg tiger recently which we tagged,'' he said. ``We've seem some big hammerheads, lemons sharks, groupers.''

See www.terraaustralis.tv