FOR those who believe sharks will not attack attorneys as there is courtesy among professional colleagues, here’s a scary story that proves otherwise.
It comes from the diary of local legal beagle Allan Heydorn, an avid spear fisherman who enjoys nothing better than getting into deep water with his mates to grab a couta or two.
He tells of an outing some time back on his boat ‘Exciter’, with crew Johan Jacobs, Koos Jordaan and his son JP, to the spectacular High Point reef with its number of pinnacles which rise to 30 metres from the seabed at 60 metres.
Without any luck, they decided to try the wreck of the Petingo some 18km south east of Richards Bay.
‘Johan did a couple of dives but said a shark had rushed at him and that he felt uncomfortable in such conditions.
‘We decided to call it a day when a shoal of couta crossed the wreck.
‘Koos and JP speared four, the biggest being over 20kgs.’
‘That inspired me and I slipped over the side.
‘I was scanning the water for more gamefish when something rushed past me on the surface.
‘It did a 180 degree turn and I was shocked by the unmistakable sight of the blunt nose of a great white shark, mouth open and charging towards me.
‘I was wearing a shark pod but there was no time to switch it on. I was also carrying a powerhead I would normally have fitted to the spear to shoot an aggressive shark but this too would have taken too long.
‘All I could do was shoot the shark with my normal spear.
‘I remember screaming when I pulled the trigger, by which time the shark was less than a metre from me.
‘I heard the thud as the spear struck its leathery skin.
‘Then all hell broke loose. It went berserk, creating clouds of white water as it thrashed about.
‘I was concerned it might have another go at me: had the shot not been damaging, it might not have aborted the attack.
‘I also worried that I might become entangled with my 30 metre floatline linking my gun to my buoy, and could be dragged down into the depths.’
Boat towed at speed
Fortunately neither happened and the boat picked him up.
Soon after, Allan heard his buoy was heading towards New Mouth at high speed.
‘We rushed to locate the buoy and, with the shark still swimming strongly tied the floatline to the anchor bollard of the boat.
‘We switched off the motors and were surprised at the speed at which the shark was towing us.
‘Using the power of the motors we shortened the floatline to about eight metres.
‘Two of the guys attempted to swim to the front of the boat to shoot the shark with powerheads and succeeded on the second attempt, each firing off a shot.
‘A single shot would normally kill any shark but this one simply carried on swimming.
‘The guys reported that my spear had struck the shark’s head between the eyes. It must have penetrated deeply as it had withstood the force of towing the boat.
‘The divers were preparing to deliver a further shot when the shark rose out of the water.
‘The head broke the surface as it lunged itself into the air vertically.
‘I thought it was going to snatch me the way they hunt seals as it came out of the water closer than a metre from where I was standing.
‘I vividly remember it sizing me up through its big black eye.
‘One diver was flung off the shark’s back to the left and the other went flying to the right.
‘Luckily neither of them was injured.
‘Deciding it had had enough, it jumped and spiralled and eventually the line linking the spear to the gun parted.’
As for the size of the shark: the distance between its eyes was one metre, the depth of the tail one and a half metres and the length over five metres.
