It took about 80 minutes to land the 2,7 metre animal on an 80-pound braid line.

It was a team effort as the Mandurah fisherman, with the help of two friends, released the shark without injuring it.

"Tiger sharks this size are protected and need to be released immediately but it fought really hard and got tangled in a thick bed of seaweed about 150 metres offshore so it was exhausted," Mr Draper, from Mandurah, said.

"As soon as we saw it, instead of cutting the line we had to race to get the hook out and free it so we could swim it back in the water. It was only on the shoreline for maybe 50 seconds.

"Then all three of us pushed it back into the water and swam it around until it was ready and swam off strongly."

Mr Draper said tiger sharks were beautiful animals and needed to be protected.

"We were not actually fishing for tiger sharks but there have been a few big bronze whalers and a bull shark seen lately so we wanted to see if we could get one of those," he said.

"People need to understand that sharks are not killing machines.

"Yes, we need to be cautious when we are in the water but not scared because fear leads people to make poor decisions."