Cole Harrison, 29, was reeling in a huge tuna near the Cook Islands when he got into a struggle with three hungry reef sharks, who ended up being just a couple metres away
This is the incredible moment a spear-fisherman was caught in an epic tug of war over a massive tuna with THREE sharks.
Cole Harrison, 29, was on a 2,000 mile trip between Tahiti and Fiji in the South Pacific when he went on a dogtooth tuna fishing expedition near the Cook Islands.
Dramatic footage shows him snag a massive fish - but then enter a battle with three hungry reef sharks who wanted a meal.
He was involved in a tug of war with the predators - with them pulling and biting on the tuna while he tried to reel in the catch.
But as he pulled it closer to the surface, the sharks followed, coming within a couple of meters of him and the fish he had in his grasp.
Remarkably he won the battle and got the fish on board - but not before the sharks got their share, biting enormous chunks out of the fish.
Cole, from Key West, Florida, said: "We were fishing at this spot and the sharks don't have much experience of people and they weren't shy of coming at us.
"After I speared the tuna it ran off and my friend Alex was on the buoy putting pressure on the line.
"I made it to the surface and started fighting the fish, but then the sharks turned up.
"They started having a go on the tuna and I called the boat saying I needed them.
"Five seconds later he was right there and we were able to bring the fish onto the boat which the sharks were trying to take it out of my hands."
Cole was in the water with the fish and the sharks - and at one point it looks as if the sharks were getting very close.
Cole added: "I stayed calm, it's just experience. I've been diving with sharks my whole life and I've been fishing since I was 10-years-old.
"I've been butted by them before and have friends who have been bitten by sharks.
"It was fortunate that everything worked out, I had a really small window to land the fish and take it from the sharks.
"If I didn't get the boat there then we would have lost the fish. For sure I was worried about getting bitten, there was a lot of adrenaline.
"It's risky, reef sharks are the most notorious for always biting people in the water.
"In this pure clean water at least you can see them coming. You can get a gauge on how the sharks are behaving.
"They're kind of like dogs, you can see when they are fired up. You can read sharks, I was fortunate there were only three of them."
Cole, a boat captain and underwater photographer, was on a two and a half month trip from Tahiti to Fiji when he took the video.
Along with his crew, Adam Schewitz, and Alex Thomas, both 32, he'd tried to snare dog tooth tuna three times earlier - but all were stolen back by sharks.
