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12/25/2015 - Ojeda-Thies - Canary Island

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:43 pm
by alb
Tourist bitten by shark off coast of Gran Canaria

A woman has been bitten by a shark off the coast of Gran Canaria during a Chirstmas holiday.

She went for a swim after Christmas dinner with her relatives and was bitten 60ft from the shoreline.

Authorities are keen to stress that it was a ‘one-off’ over fears it could dent tourism to the island – a major income.

Ojeda-Thies, from Madrid, tweeted pictures of her injuries after being treated at hospital.

And the doctors seemed pretty intrigued as well:

She wrote: ‘Today I had a face-to-face meeting with a shark. Things that happen when you swim in the Canary Islands in December.’

She told a local newspaper: ‘I noticed something pulling at my left arm but I didn’t pay any attention because it felt like a dog biting you when it’s playing.

‘I returned to the shoreline swimming crawl and I felt another pull again, more intense this time.

Tourist bitten by shark off coast of Gran Canaria
Local authorities have been keen to play down the shark bite

‘Half a second later I felt something grabbing hold of me, I turned round and I saw it pulling at me. It was a fish. I hit it with my right hand and I saw the shark’s fins as it swam off.

‘Everything happened very quickly, in seconds. Although it wasn’t a painful attack, I didn’t realise how serious it was till I got out of the water.

‘As I turned round I saw it was a big greyish-brown fish and when I hit it I noticed it had hard, rough skin.

‘There are times when I’ve fallen off my bike or I’ve burnt myself cooking and it’s hurt me more.

‘But it’s true it was something that frightened me. Thankfully I was able to react.

‘I was still in the sea when I put my head under water to see if it was following me and look where I could escape to nearer the shoreline and I didn’t see it again.’

Fernando Frias, president of the Shark Alliance, said: ‘I doubt something like this will happen again in the next 50 years so people shouldn’t be afraid.’


Read more: http://metro.co.uk