VIA – The Huffington Post | Posted: 01/27/2014 11:21 am EST | Updated: 01/27/2014 11:59 am EST
The moral of this story: Always swim with your knife.
New Zealand doctor James Grant had a close call on Saturday with what conservation officials surmise was a sevengill shark. The 24-year-old man was spearfishing with some friends in the murky waters of Colac Bay when he felt a tug on his leg, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Although he couldn’t see the shark, he wasted no time in whipping out his diving knife and taking a few stabs at the source of his distress.
“[I thought] bugger, now I have to try and get this thing off my leg,” Grant told Radio New Zealand.
Grant isn’t sure how much damage he inflicted on the shark, but he was able to flee once it let go. Once ashore, he took off his borrowed wetsuit and saw a few bites measuring up to two inches across.
Grant called out to his friends, but they didn’t believe he’d been attacked by a shark. Later, they were shocked to find that the junior doctor had patched himself up with a first-aid kit they’d brought along for their pig-hunting dogs (must be a New Zealand thing).
Grant and his friends then headed to a nearby pub to have a beer. Once the staff gave Grant a bandage because he was getting blood on the floor, everyone agreed it was time to get him to a hospital.
The doc was back at work Monday, and said the experience didn’t put him off spearfishing.
“When the stitches come out I will be back in the water,” Grant said.
In recorded history there has never been a fatal attack by a sevengill shark, although one did reportedly grab a diver by the head in 2013.
Original Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/james-grant-fights-shark-doctor_n_4673803.html
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