The incident occurred near notorious attack site Kelp Beds Beach.
More untagged and aggressive great white sharks have been encountered by people in the past two weeks than the two sharks detected by Fisheries' new $100,000 VR4 receivers, installed on Esperance beaches in June.
Fishermen Jacob Oversby, 25, and Luke Christian, 25, were fishing in Wylie Bay last weekend when their 6m boat was attacked by a 3.5m great white shark, the same aggressive shark they had seen two days earlier. After taking just 10 seconds of video of the attack, the fishermen fled.
"It was bold," Mr Innes said.
"It lifted its tail and slapped it โ that was the first warning; 'If you don't go, I'll bite you'."
Mr Oversby said the same shark had attacked them last week: "It's got a black mark, scar, on its side. (It's) 100 per cent the same one."
Filmmaker and local shark expert David Riggs said locals feared another great white shark attack was inevitable in Wylie Bay. He said for public safety, it should be tagged so the beacon was alerted when it was close.
Esperance Ocean Safety and Support Group leader Mitch Capelli said Fisheries WA told an Esperance community "shark information night" on May 17 it would tag great white sharks for three weeks in August, but nothing had been done.
If the seasonal aggregation of great white sharks were not tagged in Esperance, the town's two VR4 receivers were a false sense of security.
A giant electronic sign with pages of warnings and updates on sharks was erected at Kelp Beds Beach by local MLC Colin de Grussa last weekend, after the first two aggressive attacks on boats.
The Esperance Ocean Safety and Support Group sent a letter to Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly on Friday asking for permission to tag great white sharks when they were sighted and add lights and sirens to the VR4 shark monitors so water users knew when a tagged shark was within 500m.
Mr Kelly said he would ask his department to "evaluate the matters raised".
Regarding the guys fishing off their boats, their complaints of sharks nudging their boats and allegedly taking chunks off their outboards are become tiring indeed.
Let's face it, here we have these guys on a boat, seeking the best part of water where there is an abundance of fish, they anchor the boat, fill a bucket with Burley, (offal of fish and whale oil ) as bait to lure the fish towards the boat, then they catch a fish on their line that puts up a mighty struggle, that sharks for hundreds of miles around can sense, causing them to home in on the struggling fish, before it is pulled out of the water. In some cases, they are successful, and surrender only half or a quarter of the fish to the guy in the boat. Other times, they may be unsuccessful and the guy in the boat wins with a complete fish.
But the question remains : Given all the above, surely anyone one with even half a brain, would be able to work out for themselves, that the behaviour of these fisher people in their boats is GUARANTEED to attract SHARKS of all kinds, so why the surprise and exclamation when they do ??????????? DUH !