Tragic set of circumstances’
But Wilson reported his friend had stopped bleeding and had died beside him.
‘‘The shark appeared to me to be a white pointer.
‘‘It was similar to one we had netted last year . . . That is about 14 feet, six inches in length,’’ Wilson told the coroner.
Just four days after the death, Coroner Thomas Ross found Graeme Hitt had bled to death after his arteries in his left leg ‘‘were severed in an attack by a white shark’’.
TRAGIC SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES
Wilson and Skinner have since died. Kirkman told Stuff he was reluctant to talk about the tragedy, half a century ago.
‘‘From a mature perspective I am mindful of what it was: it was a fatal interaction between a human being and a primeval predator, in what people don’t realise is a primeval aquatic environment.
‘‘From the perspective of a young man of 18 at the time, it was relatively traumatic . . . of course it was.
‘‘I was just dazed that someone could die like that.’’
Kirkman, who is semi-retired but who still works in fisheries research, said he often thought about what had happened.
But he disliked television shows or news items sensationalising great white shark encounters.
‘‘That is a misrepresentation of the true facts of the situation.’’
Sharks were a primary predator and played a crucial role in keeping balance in the marine food chain.
‘‘I’ve done zillions of dives since then and I am always mindful that they are there in the water.’’
But he never went spear fishing again, believing the blood may have possibly attributed to attracting the shark on that day, he said.
‘‘It is illogical any shark would be imprinted to target human beings.
‘‘It was just a tragic set of circumstances.
‘‘There is no doubt in my mind that the fatalities should not be attributed to one shark.
‘‘I imagine each of the fatalities would be a case of mistaken identity.’’
FAMILIES CONNECTED BY TRAGEDY
Headlines of the day included Dunedin swimmer killed by shark, with reports noting a similar sized shark drowned in nets the year before.
‘‘It showed signs of being attacked by another shark.’’
Errol Hitt said before his brother’s death, shark attacks were very much on the minds of Dunedinites.
‘‘I can remember being on a tram and people were talking about it, and I thought ‘it has got nothing to do with you’.’’
‘‘It is illogical any shark would be imprinted to target human beings.’’ John Kirkman
He knew personally the toll they could take on a family. One of his best friends was Maurice, the brother of Les Jordan, who was killed by a shark at St Clair in 1964.
‘‘We were in the same class at school, and we used to hang out.’’
Maurice, known to his friends as ‘‘Mo’’, later died of leukaemia.
Both boys shared a bond over the tragic death of their brothers. ‘‘We talked about it at times.’’ After his brother’s death he found out a fishing company was regularly dumping fish waste into the sea near where the incident unfolded. ‘‘That attracted the shark.’’ He believed the Dunedin attacks was the work of one shark.
‘‘He has his pattern, his own wee circuit that he goes to around the world, and that would be one of the places he would call in because there was free food there.’’
Errol Hitt was there when a plaque was unveiled to the memory of those taken in shark attacks off Dunedin’s coast.
Survivor Barry Watkins arranged the plaque, with the family of Les Jordan and Bill Black also attending.
The Dunedin attacks curtailed previous interest in swimming in the sea as ‘‘I’m silly, not stupid’’.
‘‘I couldn’t trust the sea.’’ With the passing years that had changed, ‘‘it doesn’t really worry me.’’
‘‘But I’m old enough not to go swimming in sea.’’