By DPA
Wellington : A popular New Zealand beach was reopened to swimmers Tuesday with lifeguards keeping a close watch on the water following a large bronze whaler shark’s attack on an inflatable boat, which caused it to start to deflate.
Two lifesavers told of the attack Monday as they tried to chase away the shark, which was cruising about 100 metres off shore at Omaha Beach, north of Auckland.
“It was just like ‘Jaws’,” Lauren Johnson, 19, told the Dominion Post, referring to the famous movie. “It had ‘kill’ on its mind.”
“I thought I was going to die – I thought my number was up,” she told the New Zealand Herald.
Johnson and fellow surf lifesaver Kris O’Neill, 26, said the shark, which was as long as their 3.8 metre boat, turned on the vessel, repeatedly ramming it from below.
“Normally, you drive up to a shark and they take off pretty quickly – they don’t like the boat at all,” O’Neill told Radio New Zealand.
“But this one just cruised along beside the boat and I slowed the boat down a bit and the next thing it was smashing its head up underneath the boat and started chewing things up.”
O’Neill said it was very aggressive and one of the boat’s four air-filled pontoons deflated as it sank its teeth into the rubber, so they turned the boat around and headed for the shore.
He said that up to six sharks had been seen off the beach on Monday, but reopening the beach Tuesday morning officials said the risk of an attack on swimmers and surfers was slight.