OPEN wide. The fury of a great white shark feeding on tuna bait at the Neptune Islands, southeast of Port Lincoln, has been captured by Victorian diver Brett Rapp.

The shark was viewed from a special deep-sea cage during a dive with Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions.

Mr Rapp, who often gets up close with sharks for feeding and tank cleaning, said his first encounter with great whites was a dive with a difference.

"The size of the animals was amazing," he said. "The smallest we saw was a 3.5m male, and the biggest was a 5m female."

He said he had little apprehension about getting in the cage, which is lowered under water and surrounded with bait.

"It's definitely something I want to do again. It was such a buzz," he said.

Great whites can grow to 6m long and weigh up to 1900kg.

They can grow more than 300 teeth and can detect one drop of blood in 100 litres of water.