Denis Poroy/Invision/AP Women promoting Sharknado 3 dance on Fifth Avenue on Preview Night at Comic-Con International held at the San Diego Convention Center Wednesday July 8, 2015 in San Diego. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Invision/AP)

If the bizarre Hollywood blockbuster Sharknado stuck to scientific facts, it wouldn't be particularly exciting.

Australian scientists accidentally recorded the closest thing to a sharknado when a Category 5 cyclone struck a bay with more than 100 tagged black tip reef sharks.

The results?

"Well really they all just hunkered down," lead author Andrew Chin said.

"It was during Cyclone Yasi and to be honest, we expected all the sharks to leave, because that's what international research had show in the past but all the white tip reef sharks stayed.

"Other shark species left but the black tips hung around."

The James Cook University study centred around Cockle Bay near Townsville that seemed to have a "magnetic pull" for the sharks.

"We don't exactly know why but there's something about Cockle Bay," Chin said.

"Some of the sharks just don't leave, it's like there's a magnetic pull."