Great story

[TimberMcPherson]

Dolphins saved us from shark, lifeguards say

24.11.2004
By AINSLEY THOMSON
A pod of dolphins is being credited with saving a group of lifeguards from a circling great white shark.

Lifeguard Rob Howes, his daughter Niccy, 15, Karina Cooper, 15, and Helen Slade, 16, were swimming 100m out to sea at Ocean Beach, near Whangarei, when seven bottlenose dolphins sped towards them and herded them together.

"They were behaving really weird," Mr Howes said, "turning tight circles on us, and slapping the water with their tails."

Mr Howes and Helen Slade had drifted about 20m away from the others when a dolphin swam straight at them and dived a few metres in front of them.

"I turned in the water to see where it was going to come up, but instead I saw this great big grey fish swim around me," said Mr Howes.

The veteran lifeguard said it was undoubtedly a 3m-long great white shark.

"It glided around in an arc and headed for the other two girls. My heart went into my mouth, because one of them was my daughter. The dolphins were going ballistic."

The 47-year-old said the dolphins herded the swimmers - who are all members of the Whangarei Heads Surf Lifesaving Club - back together and circled protectively around them for another 40 minutes, fending off the shark.

"I swim with dolphins perhaps three or four times a year here at this beach and I have never in six years seen them behave like that."

Mr Howes decided not to tell the three girls a shark was sharing the water with them.

Lifeguard Matt Fleet was patrolling out from the surf beach in a rescue boat and saw the dolphins' unusual behaviour.

He dived out of the boat to join the group and also saw the great white.

Mr Fleet said the water was clear and he had a good view.

The encounter occurred on October 30, but Mr Howes has spoken publicly about it only this week.

"I sat on it for three weeks, purely because I did not know quite how to handle it.

The only reason he went public was "I didn't want anyone to get chomped [by the shark], so I couldn't be accused of not having made people aware there was a shark out there".

Dr Rochelle Constantine, from the Auckland University School of Biological Science, said it was a rare event, but she had heard of similar things happening overseas.

She said sharks were not normally a threat to New Zealand's bottlenose dolphins, but the dolphins would attack them if they felt at risk.

"From my understanding of the behaviour of these dolphins they certainly were acting in a way which indicated the shark posed a threat to something. Dolphins are known for helping helpless things. It is an altruistic response and bottlenose dolphins in particular are known for it."

Ingrid Visser, who has studied marine mammals for 14 years, said there had been reports from around the world of dolphins protecting swimmers.

"[The dolphins] could have sensed the danger to the swimmers and taken action to protect them."

[MasterBlaster]

Cool!

[Newfie]

Originally posted by TimberMcPherson
"[The dolphins] could have sensed the danger to the swimmers and taken action to protect them."

Too bad the guy that reported the story to the authorities sat on it for 3 weeks instead of picking up on the dolphins cue.

[Chris J.]

gotta agree with Newfie. Why did he, & the other lifeguard, keep it quiet for so long ?

[MasterBlaster]

Maybe he thought people would think he was nuts.

[Max]

I would not care who thought I was a wing nut if it possibly meant saving someone from potential harm...

Who remembers in Jaws, when Mrs. Kittner slapped the crap out of Cheif Brodey on the dock for not closing the beaches(her kid was the boy on the raft)...ring any bells?

I know its just a movie but who wants to hear about that for real?
Not me!