A New Zealand lifeguard told on Tuesday how a pod of dolphins saved him and three young women from a large shark which threatened them on a training swim 100 metres offshore.
Rob Howe said he and his daughter were with two others at Ocean Beach, near Whangarei, when six or seven dolphins ”raced in pretty quick and very, very agitated” and herded them together by turning tight circles around the group to protect them.
He told Radio New Zealand the dolphins swam with the lifeguards four or five times every summer, but they were bemused by their agitated nature. ”We were stunned really by the speed and the proximity,” he said.
”They were turning really tight circles — we had never come across it before.”
Unaware of what was happening, Howe said the dolphins kept the four of them together for quite a while before he and one of the women drifted 20 metres away from the other two.
”At that point a single dolphin came full bore at myself and submerged. I turned in the water to see where it was going to surface and that’s when I saw a big grey mass just cruise by about two metres away, and the penny dropped.
”I looked in the direction of where the shark was going, which was directly towards the other two girls who at that time had about three dolphins going absolutely berserk around them.
”My heart went in my mouth because one of those was my daughter.”
Howe said the dolphins maintained their close circles on the girls until an inflatable rescue boat with another lifeguard who had seen what was happening arrived and confirmed the presence of a shark.
He said he had been swimming in the area for six years and was used to the dolphins but had never witnessed that behaviour before.
”They steamed in — turned all these tight circles — they were very agitated. They tried to keep us together when we broke away and obviously when the shark came towards us one of the bigger dolphins broke away.”
Howe said a local dolphin expert said they were either protecting the swimmers or looking to them for protection from the shark. ”But their behaviour would indicate that they were protecting us,” he said.
The New Zealand Press Association said it was a three-metre Great White shark and quoted Howe as saying: ”I just recoiled. It was only about two metres away from me. The water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face.”
The report said the incident happened about three weeks ago but the lifeguards had not talked about it until they had a chance to catch up and confirm what they had seen. – Sapa-DPA