Kiwi bitten by shark — again

A TEMUKA fisherman has been left with a gaping hole in his arm after he was bitten by a shark — for a second time.

Karl Waters was out at sea off the coast of Australia’s Northern Territory on Sunday trying to catch a trout with his spear when a 1.2m whitetip reef shark suddenly appeared.

The shark was attempting to eat Waters’ catch but instead gripped his body and chomped down on his arm.

The spearfisherman sustained deep lacerations to his right arm.

‘‘I could see that he hadn’t hit any of the main arteries or anything on the inside of the arm, so I sort of relaxed a little bit straight away then,’’ he told the ABC.

‘‘I gave my hand a little bit of a wiggle, made sure that he hadn’t severed any tendons, and shouted out nice and loud to my mate who was in the boat at the time.’’

His friend raised anchor as Waters swam back to the boat. They worked together to bandage the wound to stem the heavy bleeding.

But the Temuka man was not yet out of the woods. Realising they were out of phone range, he had to use the radio to contact a nearby boat which was able to make the call for help.

Craig Garraway, from St John Ambulance, said every thing had to be done by satellite phone, and with communication difficult they had to prepare for the worst.

After making it to land, the Kiwi fisherman was airlifted to Darwin hospital, where he received 30 stitches to close the wounds.

Mr Waters said it was not the first time he had been bitten by a shark — he was nipped by a sevengill shark in New Zealand less than a year ago.

He said the latest accident could not be blamed on the shark and it had no intention of biting him.

Mr Waters hopes to get back in the water once his wound heals. — NZME