Unlucky swimmer a meal for eel
Finned fiend either hungry or territorial, says DOC expert
There were bruises already around the bites when I took mylegoutofthe water. Jackie Phillips
Amorning swim in a Western Bay of Plenty waterfall didn’t go to plan for one Pa¯ pa¯ moa woman when she felt razor-like teeth sink into her leg. Jackie Phillips was swimming with friends early on Saturday morning at Raparapahoe Falls, near Te Puke.
She decided to swim out towards the waterfall but before she made it felt a sharp biting sensation in her leg. She believes an eel was responsible for the bite.
“I quickly swam away, it was quite sore like razor blades going into my leg, but a metre and a half later I got another bite.
“Whether I got attacked by one or two eels I don’t really know, but after the second bite, I was sort of losing my breath because I was swimming so fast to get out of the water.”
Once out, the wounds on her lower left leg would not stop bleeding – it was then she could see the multiple razor-like cuts.
With no first aid kit, she decided to keep her leg in the cold water, which helped with the bleeding and the pain.
“There were bruises already around the bites when I took my leg out of the water.”
Eventually, Phillips made it back up the path and to the hospital to receive a tetanus shot.
For the rest of the day and through to Sunday her leg was throbbing. Phillips has kept it elevated in hopes the swelling and bruising will soon go down.
The experience has not put her off from going back in the water though as she understands it is the eels’ home.
Swimming in the morning, in the cooler water, and the first one in the deep pool could have also contributed to being bitten, she reckoned.
“I wasn’t expecting to be attacked by an eel or eels, but I will go back. Just later in the day and with a group.”
Department of Conservation freshwater science advisor Dave West said there were probably two main reasons the eel bit Phillips.
“One – the eel mistook the swimmer for food as eels eat most animals in freshwater.
“Or two – the eel was protecting their patch of the river as they seek out and defend best habitats such as a deeper pool.”
West believed interactions such as this with eels were likely when they were hungrier and packed into less water – a result of low water levels during summer.
“Thankfully eels have very small teeth, so while painful the bites are seldom deep.”
A Northland boy had a similar encounter with an eel two years ago after he had been playing in a small farm stream.
The 5-year-old and his friend were “having a race” with their dinosaur toys in the knee-high stream when one dinosaur went into the deeper part and he headed over to get it.
Next thing, he was screaming “something’s biting me” and while running out of the water his dad saw the eel latched onto his leg, before letting go and darting back into the water.