G’day Bait! World picture exclusive: ‘The animal clearly wanted to kill me’
A MONSTER crocodile came within a metre of making a meal of a fisherman on a Territory river
Northern Territory
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A monster crocodile came within a metre of making a meal of a fisherman on a Territory river.
The giant saltie came alongside the small boat — probably looking for a free feed of fish — and suddenly exploded out of the water.
It almost got its jaws around 27-year-old Israeli tourist Novon Mashiah, who was leaning over the back of a dinghy posing for a photo.
The crocodile, estimated to be more than 4m long, landed on the side of the boat and then crashed back into the water.
‘‘I was shocked — the animal clearly wanted to kill me,’’ Mr Mashiah said.
‘‘One minute I was leaning over the boat teasing it for a picture. The next minute it burst out of the water with incredible speed ... its jaws fully open.
‘‘I was shaking,’’ he said.
Mr Mashiah’s fishing mate, Doron Aviguy, 22, snapped the pic from a bigger boat nearby. The two Israelis were working as fishermen when they came face-to-face with the croc on Friday morning.
Mr Mashiah said that when he saw the croc approaching he leaned over the back of his boat.
‘‘I began playing with it for a photo,’’ he said.
‘‘I was pointing at it when it suddenly jumped up at me — I didn’t realise that crocs were so aggressive.’’
Mr Aviguy said they were not alarmed when the crocodile first approached the boat.
‘‘I was laughing but it wasn’t so funny in the end,’’ he said.
Mr Mashiah, a personal trainer from Tel Aviv, only arrived in Darwin recently.
He met Mr Aviguy in Brisbane in early this year.
Mr Aviguy finished three years’ national service in the Israeli army and has been backpacking for 11 months.
They travelled to Darwin and got jobs fishing.
‘‘That’s it — I’m not getting close to crocs any more,’’ said Mr Mashiah of his photo attempt.
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