A WA fisherman has described the moment he had to fend off a suspected white shark while diving off the Burns Beach coast on Saturday morning.

 

Joe Petrovich was diving from a boat about two kilometres offshore at 9.30am when he spotted the 4.5-metre shark circling him.

 

The avid fisherman said he managed to spear the shark in the face to get away but it came back for a second time and took a chunk out of his flipper.