The dramatic moment was caught on camera and showed the Petrel happily eating away at a piece of tuna meant to lure in sharks when the apex predator struck.
Onlookers could be heard gasping in disbelief while the shark made off with his prey under water.
In the clip, the feathery creature is seen bobbing on the water, peacefully feasting on tuna tail left out by tour operators Calypso Star Charters just off the coast of Port Lincoln, South Australia, when the Great White launched itself out of the water and swallowed the animal whole.
Ben Kessler, a diver who recorded the grisly moment, said the Jaws-like beast had tried to scare off the Petrel but attacked when its signals went unnoticed.
“Everyone was really shocked and excited, like ‘wow what have we just witnessed’. It just happened so quickly,” Kessler told Daily Mail Australia.
“The shark nudged the bird twice, the shark gave it warnings, but the bird came back an hour later,” he said.
Kessler said it was common for sharks to neutralise competitors that get in the way of a meal.
“Funnily enough, the shark ate the bird then spat it out later,” he said.
This came after a 10-year-old Aussie boy was airlifted to hospital after being attacked by a two-metre shark while snorkelling with his dad.
The youngster screamed for help while snorkelling about 75 metres offshore with his dad in Western Australia, says a tour guide who dragged him “bleeding in to the shallows”.
The boy’s dad had to fend off the Bronze Whaler shark with his speargun to ensure it didn’t attack his son again, reported The West Australian.
In March, Australian fisherman Jackson Howson shared pictures of his run-in with a shark off Coral Bay, in Western Australia.
He was fishing off the coast with his girlfriend one Saturday when the prowling shark went for the same fish he had just speared.
The shark attacked Howson, who struck the beast in desperation and frantically swam the 100m back to his boat where his partner was.
It left Howson – who is in his 20s – with a horrifying 8cm bite wound on his leg from the predator – believed to be either a Whaler or Bull shark, which is considered by experts to be the most dangerous shark in the world.
