THIS is the insane moment a brave fisherman wrestles with a great white shark while freeing the beast from a fishing line.
Dramatic footage shows Kevin Phan, 20, tear off his clothes and make a beeline towards the predator, who can be seen thrashing against the waves.
The young Californian had been enjoying an early-morning fishing trip at Hermosa Beach Pier when he spotted the stricken juvenile great white.
As he sprints into the water to make the daring rescue, a large crowd gathers to watch the gripping rescue.
Phan, wearing only boxers and wielding a pair of scissors, enters the water and mounts the shark.
The young fisherman straddles the sharp-toothed beast as it thrashes around in the shallow waters.
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He then cuts the shark loose, before bravely guiding it back into the ocean by the tail.
Phan told the Los Angeles Times: “When I saw the great white, my brain just clicked into the action, and I tried to free it as quickly as I could.
“It was a little bit scary because I have never dealt with a white shark before.
“The teeth were a bit intimidating.”
The heroic act, which unfolded shortly after 9am yesterday, was caught on camera by a nearby dogwalker Alexandra Garry.
Garry had spotted two fishermen in a tug-of-war match against the beast, completely oblivious to what was on the end of their line.
She told the LA Times: “I was like, ‘oh that’s so weird, they must have gotten something really big’.
“I thought perhaps it was a big tuna, really anything except for a shark.
“The next thing I knew, one of the fishermen was half naked, stripped down to his underwear, and was in the water trying to get the hook out.”
Phan, a fisherman for the past five years, told the outlet that he hadn’t “intentionally” hooked the animal, as shark fishing is illegal in California.
As beachgoers slowly realised what Phan had caught, amazed onlookers gravitated towards the commotion.
One witness, Stephen Copeland, said: “I saw a bunch of people over there, and I ran down there like there’s something going on. He was in his underwear.”
Bystanders watched in anticipation as Phan cut the beast loose and tossed his scissors into the sand behind him.
In the footage, the shark initially appears disorientated and helplessly rolls back-and-forth with the waves.
Garry said: “It was really sad, because the shark didn’t look like it was moving a bunch.”
But Phan wades back into the water and lifts the beast by the tail, before guiding it into an oncoming wave.
The sea creature manages to regain its balance, earning a ripple of applause from onlookers who had seen the rescue.
“When it swam out, everyone on the pier clapped,” Garry said.
“It was a very much needed moment of humanity.”
In a bizarre turn of events, Phan revealed that it had been the second great white he had accidentally hooked that day.
Marine experts are warning that a busy season full of shark sightings along the Southern California coast are expected this year due to warmer ocean temperatures.
March’s record-breaking heat wave is expected to intensify this year’s El Nino cycle – a natural climate pattern that pushes warm waters towards the Americas every two to seven years.
Chris Lowe, director of the Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab, told the LA Times: “The last time we had a strong El Niño was in 2015 and 2016, and we had a lot of juvenile white sharks hanging around early.
“I’m expecting this year to be a sharky summer.”