A father and son have had a harrowing encounter with a great white shark off Tasmania’s north coast.

Sean and James Vinar were observing a seal colony near Low Head when a shark decided to get up close and personal.

James was able to capture the moment the shark struck the boat before they made a swift exit.

The encounter comes less than a fortnight after a 10-year-old boy was grabbed out of a boat by a shark in Tasmania.

James told Jim Wilson he feared the worst.

“Heaps of things go through your mind at those sorts of times.

“I was kind of afraid something was going to happen: what if the boat capsized, or what if the shark had damaged the boat more and we were going to slowly sink?”

He said he has no intention of going back to the colony.

“To be honest, we were in the shark’s domain.

“Wrong place, wrong time.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview

Image: YouTube/James Vinar