A fishing content creator from New Zealand is lucky to still have his leg after going for a dive in Fiji. Henry Gibbs was spearfishing earlier this month in the water near the South Pacific island when he was bitten by a grey reef shark.
The damage from the bite to his right leg required four surgeries and a skin graft, but didn’t cause him to lose any ability to use his foot.
“No hard feelings towards the shark. I was in its environment hunting its food,” Gibbs wrote in an Instagram post a few days ago that included pictures of him in a hospital bed.
“Wrong place, wrong time, and there are definitely a few lessons I’ll share when I post the footage in the hope it helps someone avoid ending up in the same situation and a bit on how to respond to it.”
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On Sunday, the fishing influencer followed through on that and shared the footage of the shark circling below before racing toward him and taking a bite out of his lower leg.
Gibbs explained that they had been diving in the reef for an hour or two before making their way to clearer blue water. They were trying to do some spearfishing and had a “handful of grey reef sharks” hanging out near them.
One of the sharks in particular hung around longer than the others. He doesn’t know if it was the commotion coming from the boat, the speargun sounds or the general activity in the water that made the shark excited.
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“I’ll never know exactly what caused the change, but eventually it started making tight semicircles beneath us, became increasingly agitated and even sprinted at the boat,” Gibbs wrote in the caption of the shark attack footage.
“Looking back, that should’ve been enough of a sign to call the dive. I never thought a shark of that size posed much of a threat, and that was a mistake.”
He added that most of his encounters with sharks have come in New Zealand, where he says the sharks are less aggressive. A big mistake on his part was expecting this shark to act in the same manner.
Having been bitten by a shark, Gibbs has some takeaways he’d like to pass along. The first is to end the dive and move on if a shark’s behavior changes. He also suggests sticking to plain black wetsuits in the tropics.
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He’s heard of several incidents now that he’s been attacked of grey reef sharks going after divers in camouflage wetsuits. His last two takeaways are to not ignore an agitated shark and to not judge the risk by the shark’s size.
Gibbs teased that there’s more footage that’s more graphic than what he already shared. He also thanked those who reached out and who have cared for him since the bite.
“I’m still deciding whether to share the rest of the footage as it becomes very graphic, but I do want to share more about carrying proper trauma gear, knowing how to use it, and diving with people you trust,” he wrote.
“A huge thank you to everyone who’s reached out, and to all the doctors, nurses and hospital staff, family and friends who’ve looked after me.”
You can add spearfishing in Fiji near grey reef sharks to the list of activities you’re not going to find me attempting.
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