Shark bite surfer sticks out like a sore thumb
Teacher grabbed by 3ft-long smooth hound shark suffers bloodied hand and bruising
A surfer has suffered the first ever shark attack in UK waters, though it was hardly an event worthy of Jaws. Rich Thomson, 30, walked away with a cut to his thumb from what he said was an encounter with a smooth hound shark in Devon – but added bravely that he would not be deterred from returning to the sea.
‘I saw this little shark was on my thigh and wriggling its head side to side. I hit it on the head and it swam off’
IF TRUTH be told, Steven Spielberg would have struggled to turn it into a blockbuster.
Last night, Britain was reeling from the news that a surfer had suffered the first ever shark attack in UK waters. Unlike the poor victims in Jaws, Rich Thomson was fortunate to walk away from the attack with a cut to his thumb.
Mr Thomson, 30, said he would refuse to allow the incident to deter him from venturing into the sea again.
“It shouldn’t stop anyone,” he said. “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Mr Thomson was surfing off the coast of Bantham in South Devon when the 3ft-long shark – thought to be a smooth hound shark – grabbed his leg.
Deciding he did not need a bigger surfboard, Mr Thomson, a teacher, fought back valiantly, bashed the shark on the head and it swam off.
Mr Thomson said: “I turned round and saw this little shark was on my thigh and wriggling its head side to side. I hit it on the head and it swam off. My hand was cut to pieces.”
Photographs showed a clearly bloodied thumb and grazes on his knuckles.
He said that had it not been for his thick winter wetsuit, his injuries could have been far worse. As it was Mr Thomson also suffered a “sizeable bruise about three inches across”.
Experts said they believed it was the first time a surfer had been attacked by a shark in UK waters.
Mr Thomson told the BBC that when he arrived home, his wife had initially disbelieved him.
He said: “She said, ‘I’ve heard that one before’, but it was true.”
Mr Thomson said pupils at Kingsbridge Community College, where he teaches, have nicknamed him Sharkbait and Nemo.
“I have never caught any fish while fishing, but the biggest one I’ve ever caught attached itself to my leg,” he said.
Marc Dando, a wildlife publisher and illustrator, said he thought the shark was probably a smooth hound shark.
The smooth hound, found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from the British Isles to South Africa and in the Mediterranean, can grow up to 6ft 6in but typically come in at no bigger than five feet. Mr Dando said: “It [the attack] would be a shock because all sharks have powerful jaws. Sharks can be very territorial. It was probably just telling the person to go away and struck out.”
Ali Hood, director of conservation at the Plymouth-based Shark Trust, said the small shark “would likely have been disorientated” by the “turbid, dynamic water” of the river mouth.
“British waters are home to a wide diversity of sharks with a number of coastal species such as smooth hound, tope and cat sharks often reported by beach-goers and water-users,” she said.