Jessie Leigha captures moment sharks attack croc near Cape Wessel

Jessie Leigha and the Wildcard crew thought they’d seen everything while living at sea, but the fishos got a fright when they watched a shiver of sharks circle a lone croc.

Spying a group of sharks in the water can give any fisho the shivers, and a croc sighting is often cause for thrill.

But one Territorian has captured the moment fin and scale collided in a remarkable – though short-lived – clash.

Jessie Leigha has lived aboard vessel the Wildcard for four years and is no stranger to up-close-and-personal encounters with the NT’s marine wildlife.

Jessie Leigha shared footage of the moment a shiver of sharks circled a lone crocodile.

“We were fishing up the coast of Cape Wessel and we just went around to the anchorage to stop there and anchored up for the night,” she said.

“The sharks in Cape Wessel, they’re just in abundance as many people know, and they tend to follow any boats around or especially us – we seem to attract them a lot.”

Jessie Leigha shared footage of the moment a shiver of sharks circled a lone crocodile.

Ms Leigha said a croc the crew spotted frequently turned up among the swirling shiver of sharks.

“I think the sharks were not happy with it and tried to take a chunk off it,” she said.

“Having the sharks and the crocodile, we were all just so fascinated and blown away because we hadn’t seen them together.

“We all grabbed our phones out to take a video and then, ‘oh look, the crocodile came out to say hi’, and tried to eat our rope, and then the shark took him.”

Ms Leigha said her crew was no stranger to unique animal encounters.

“We’ve had manta rays swimming beside the boat at many times over the years, you see jumping sharks,” she said.

“We’ve had crocodiles charge at our boat and jump... right beside one of our tinnies while we’ve had guests on board, so they were lucky enough to experience that out in the wild.

“Whalesharks, pilot whales, we get all of that and everything’s amazing.”