Cole Harrison, 29, was reeling in a huge tuna near the Cook Islands when he got into a struggle with three hungry reef sharks, who ended up being just a couple metres away<br />This is the incredible moment a spear-fisherman was caught in an epic tug of war over a massive tuna with THREE sharks.<br /><br />Cole Harrison, 29, was on a 2,000 mile trip between Tahiti and Fiji in the South Pacific when he went on a dogtooth tuna fishing expedition near the Cook Islands.<br /><br />Dramatic footage shows him snag a massive fish - but then enter a battle with three hungry reef sharks who wanted a meal.<br /><br />He was involved in a tug of war with the predators - with them pulling and biting on the tuna while he tried to reel in the catch.<br />But as he pulled it closer to the surface, the sharks followed, coming within a couple of meters of him and the fish he had in his grasp.<br /><br />Remarkably he won the battle and got the fish on board - but not before the sharks got their share, biting enormous chunks out of the fish.<br /><br />Cole, from Key West, Florida, said: "We were fishing at this spot and the sharks don't have much experience of people and they weren't shy of coming at us.<br /><br />"After I speared the tuna it ran off and my friend Alex was on the buoy putting pressure on the line.<br />"I made it to the surface and started fighting the fish, but then the sharks turned up.<br /><br />"They started having a go on the tuna and I called the boat saying I needed them.<br /><br />"Five seconds later he was right there and we were able to bring the fish onto the boat which the sharks were trying to take it out of my hands."<br /><br />Cole was in the water with the fish and the sharks - and at one point it looks as if the sharks were getting very close.<br />Cole added: "I stayed calm, it's just experience. I've been diving with sharks my whole life and I've been fishing since I was 10-years-old.<br /><br />"I've been butted by them before and have friends who have been bitten by sharks.<br /><br />"It was fortunate that everything worked out, I had a really small window to land the fish and take it from the sharks.<br /><br />"If I didn't get the boat there then we would have lost the fish. For sure I was worried about getting bitten, there was a lot of adrenaline.<br />"It's risky, reef sharks are the most notorious for always biting people in the water.<br /><br />"In this pure clean water at least you can see them coming. You can get a gauge on how the sharks are behaving.<br />"They're kind of like dogs, you can see when they are fired up. You can read sharks, I was fortunate there were only three of them."<br /><br />Cole, a boat captain and underwater photographer, was on a two and a half month trip from Tahiti to Fiji when he took the video.<br /><br />Along with his crew, Adam Schewitz, and Alex Thomas, both 32, he'd tried to snare dog tooth tuna three times earlier - but all were stolen back by sharks.<br />
