Shark! Rescue on a Remote Island

The New Zealander lay dying on one of the most remote islands on earth. Could he be saved in time?

Mike Fraser pulled his diving mask down over his face and let the icy waters of the Southern Ocean close over his wetsuit. Snorkelling was his favourite way of relaxing from his job as leader of a weather station on Campbell Island, one of the most isolated places on earth. A speck of land between New Zealand and Antarctica, the island is normally lashed by westerly gales. But on April 24, 1992, the sea was brilliant blue and the wind a gentle breeze.

As his four teammates snorkelled in the shallows, Fraser finned his way to 40 metres offshore. He relished the feeling of oneness with nature. Here, rare yellow-eyed penguins flourished, and the sea lions were so unafraid that they would often swim alongside him.

Fraser scanned the ocean bed to familiarise himself with the depth of the bay so that he might swim with the southern right whales when they came to breed in the winter. He was relaxed. Large sharks were unknown here and, while the temperature of the water could be as low as 6°C, his wetsuit was thick enough to keep out the cold.

After half an hour, Fraser had seen enough. It was about 3.30pm. Time to go back. He stopped kicking and let himself drift.

Thud! A huge weight slammed into his right shoulder. Fraser was flung forwards, gasping for breath. Must

be a big bull sea lion, he thought. An instant later, he was hurled upwards and held waist-high above the water.

Then Fraser looked down. Clamped round his right arm were the 80-centimetre-wide jaws of a huge shark.

Instinctively, Fraser swung his left arm round and punched furiously at the creature’s huge, pointed snout. I must warn the others, he thought. “Shark!” he screamed. But his cry became a silent stream of bubbles as the monster dragged him under.

METEOROLOGIST Linda Danen, Fraser’s second-in-command, was snorkelling 15 metres nearer the shore. With conservation off icer Jacinda Amey, electronic technician Robin Humphrey and mechanic Gus McAllister, she was watching the reflections of a rarely seen sun on the sandy bottom. All they could hear beneath the sea was the steady rush of their own breathing. Then came a faint, muffled cry. The swimmers surfaced and scanned the horizon. Nothing.

Suddenly, there was an explosion of spray. Fraser erupted from the sea,

yelling and fighting ferociously. The four froze at the sight of the creature that held him. The great white paused for a moment, its head out of the water. Then, chillingly, the shark opened and closed its mouth round Fraser as if testing the consistency of his flesh.

Think, Danen urged herself. There

must be something you can do. She screamed to the others, “Has anyone got a diving knife?” But she knew they were powerless to help. The great white is the ocean’s most fearsome predator: 600 kilos of muscle and gristle against which a diver’s knife would be as useless as a toothpick. Judging by the monster’s head, it was at least four metres long. Danen watched helplessly as the shark pulled Fraser beneath the waves.

AS HE WENT UNDER, Fraser realised that death was only seconds away. If you don’t free yourself now, you’re

gone. He raised his knees, then gave a powerful kick to the pale underside of the monster’s mouth. He kicked again and again, tugging desperately at his trapped arm. The shark shook him, its teeth meshing like shears as they ground deep into his flesh. Fraser kicked again. Suddenly, he felt a hard wrench, and he rolled clear.

Instantly, Fraser rocketed upwards. As his head broke the water’s surface, he sucked in air and kicked frantically for the shore. But as he ploughed through the water, his body reacted strangely. He looked down at his right arm. It’s gone! There was nothing below the elbow except a shredded stump that pumped bursts of bright red arterial blood into the ocean.

Fraser knew that his only hope lay in getting to his teammates before he bled to death. He had told them before: “Out here we have to look out for each other. There’s nobody else.” Now that would be put to the test.

Fraser’s instincts urged him to swim to shore as fast as he could. But years of living in remote places had taught him not to panic. He knew that every beat of his heart pumped more blood into the sea. So, to avoid panic, he forced himself to give measured kicks.

Then, suddenly, Fraser felt a tug on his neck.

He turned and looked in a diving mask. Jacinda! Why didn’t she go in to the shore? he thought as she slipped her body under his and began to pull him to the shore.

Waiting there, the other teammates lifted the wounded man out of the

THE SHARK SHOOK HIM, ITS TEETH MESHING LIKE SHEARS AS THEY GROUND INTO HIS FLESH