Dominion Post
A 10-year-old Gisborne girl is the second victim of a stingray's barb on the East Coast in a week. She was taken to hospital with a lacerated knee after being hit by the barb at Makorori, 12 kilometres east of Gisborne, on Wednesday. On Sunday, a Hawke's Bay man was left with a 10-centimetre deep cut in his groin after an encounter with a metre-long stingray at Tangoio Beach near Hastings. The girl stood on the stingray while walking in hip-deep water and was taken to hospital by St John Ambulance. Gisborne Hospital spokeswomen Louise Hegarty said the minor wound was treated and she was discharged soon after.
Invercargill Girl Fights off Shark
By SAM McKNIGHT and MICHAEL FOX
Southland Times
Weapon of Choice: Lydia Ward holds the boogie board she used to fend off a 1.5m shark that bit her on the right hip at Oreti Beach last night.The inset shows a broadnose sevengill shark - the proposed biter. A 14-year-old Invercargill girl bitten on the right hip by a shark at Oreti Beach last night believes it was defending itself. Describing the attack this morning, Lydia Ward said she bore no ill feeling towards the shark, which had reacted after she stepped on it twice. Her second footfall caused the shark to react, swimming up from the seafloor and latching its jaws around her right thigh towards her buttock. She pounded the shark in the head with her body board to make it release her.She was in chest deep water when the encounter happened.
"I brushed my foot on something." It was a chilling realization and instinctively, she knew she had stepped on something possibly alive. "When I first stood on it I tried to tell myself it was piece of driftwood," she said, but her imagination took over. "I thought it was a body...I dunno...It was cold and slippery but soft, like it gave way a bit."
She treaded water and tried to move away before she had to place her feet down again, she said.
Again, she stood on the shark. "I looked at my brother and he just said `whoa'...then I saw this massive grey thing twisting in the water." Initially she did not realize the shark had her in its jaws. "I didn't feel anything...then I saw some blood in the water," Lydia said.
Instinct kicked in and something she had read about sharks just snapped into her brain, she said.
"I had read to get them (sharks) away you hit them on the head, so I hit it with my body board." She had little time to think, let alone panic, she said. The shark released its grip, but because of traces of blood in the water she thought it might come back.
The time it took to travel the 20m back to the beach dragged out, Lydia said. "I was so frustrated because I couldn't run." Lydia, who had gone to the beach with her parents and 10-year-old brother Alex about 6.30pm, said her parents initially did not believe her when she caught her breath and told them what had happened. However, when they saw the puncture marks in her wetsuit and the blood they changed their minds.
Her brother said the shark estimated could have been about 1.5m long. While her wetsuit was left with a set of holes after the shark's teeth sliced through the fabric, her only injuries were two puncture wounds about 22cm apart, Lydia said. Lydia was to visit a doctor today to check her bites.
Bull Shark Range Extension
"Kiwi Angler Pulls in New Zealand's First Bull Shark; 'This is Going to be a Good Story' "
by Bronwyn Huband and Land Nichols
January 17, 2006 00:00 EST
http://www.stuff.co.nz
confirmed, it will be the first bull shark found in New Zealand waters. Experts say the fish are very aggressive and among the four most dangerous shark species in the world, along with the tiger, great white and oceanic white tip.
Three bull sharks are thought to have killed 21-year-old Sarah Kate Whiley earlier this month at Amity Pt off Queensland's North Stradbroke Island. Ms Young struggled to hold the catch on her deep-sea fishing line with an extra-strength braid line, before her friend Dennis Crawford attached an anchor winch to ease the load. It took about 45 minutes to get the shark on board their yacht. "It didn't put up a big fight but it pulled me back a bit," Ms Young said.
During the struggle to land the shark, she thought about what her friends would think of her catch and knew she had to keep it as proof for when she got home. "I just thought, this is going to be a good story." She was not sure whether the big chunk of barracouta on the end of her line had been what tempted the shark.
It was thought the shark may have been pregnant or sick, which was why it was so close to shore. Touch the Sea Aquarium owner Murray Goss believed it was a bull shark, which were found mostly in tropical seas. Te Papa fishes collection manager Andrew Stewart said the shark would be frozen and couriered to the museum for examination and identification. "If it is a bull shark it will be the first. It's a fairly significant occurrence if it is here. They're aggressive, they've got broad, serrated, triangular teeth. Some specialists believe they are responsible for the majority of shark attacks around the world." He said bull sharks could grow up to 3.5m in length. They were capable of surviving in fresh water and had been found thousands of kilometres up rivers. They sometimes travelled in small groups.
Fishermen have meanwhile reported sightings this month of a great white shark off the Taranaki coast.
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