Good fishie! The amazing moment a man pats a Great White Shark as it breaches next to his boat

This is the amazing moment a man pats a monstrous Great White Shark off the coast of Australia after attracting it with chunks of bait.

The image was originally taken to demonstrate the powers of the Shark Shield, an electronic device designed to keep sharks away from surfers.

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This image, taken in 2007, was part of a demonstration to show the powers of the Shark Shield

But after one Great White bit right through such a device, and in a separate incident a student died in a horrifying shark attack, scientists began to wonder if the devices do not repel sharks so much as they attract them.

Jarrod Stehbens, 23, was on a University diving trip when he was taken by a shark at Glenelg in Adelaide, Australia in August 2005.

At the inquest into his death, staff from Adelaide University questioned whether shark shields should be used at all.

The university was worried that the devices attracted sharks before deterring them, and posed a health risk, especially to pregnant women or anyone with heart problems.

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Other stories of sharks biting through the devices have been documented.

The Shark Shield's website claims the device utilises a technologically advanced three dimensional electronic wave form to repel sharks by inducing spasms in their snouts.

The electronic waves work from about eight metres away. The closer the shark gets, the site claims, the more intolerable the spasms become.

It says the product is tried and tested and does not attract sharks but repels them.