While filming creatures in the cold waters of Bass Strait for my " Wildlife Adventures with David Ireland series" we came onto a very strange species of Shovelnose shark I had never seen before or been able to properly identify since. (The attached photo is a northern species) the weird animal had the same long pointed snout of the northern species and the same mouth structure, but had far larger "wings" that spread out more like an angel. I immediately wanted to include this wonderful creature in my series, so we returned to the site with large barracuda carcasses as bait for an attempt at hand feeding the animal on film.

The first response was the creature became excited like any ray or shark and swam towards me to investigate. It then swept its whole body upwards and gladly took the barracuda from my hand and crushed the fish to pulp before swallowing the 10lb/5 kg fish in a single gulp.

My cameraman, was not impressed as the whole feed was over too quickly, so I retrieved another barracuda from the bag and offered the now very excited creature another fish. Because the mouth of a shovelnose is under the head, it was hard for me to exactly see the initial grab of the hand held bait. The shovelnose lunged forward and took the two-foot long fish and my hand firmly in its powerful jaws. The shovelnose has crushing jaws with fused teeth and cannot tear a mans hand away with a single bite, but the crushing power can easily permanently damage the small bones in a mans hand and the incredibly wide wing shaped wings can generate tremendous shaking. The shaking may well break my arm to add to the injuries to my hand.

The initial sensation of having my hand firmly in this creature's mouth was pain, I could not believe the pressure, but I knew fighting the strange beast might cause him to crush and shake more vigorously, so I waited for him to try and swallow his catch. When I felt the second gulp, I pulled my hand free. The result was a very sore hand with no broken bones.

Being now far wiser, I hand fed the shovelnose again and again being extra careful to not allow him to take my hand in his powerful jaws again, eventually he became satisfied and extremely calm. So, I gently held his snout and lifted him from the seabed for a dance above my cameraman. The now very placid animal allowed me to hold and swim with him as he spun and tumble turned mid water. The scene made addition for our latest production that features numerous coldwater creatures of Bass Strait Australia.