A great white shark was labelled curious, after it was spotted in a video investigating a bait pot put out to capture video footage of species in the Dusky Sound. Photo: Supplied/ DOC
A diver is recovering well after being bitten by a shark at Dusky Sound in Fiordland National Park.
The man had been diving from a charter boat, and was flown by helicopter to Southland Hospital in Invercargill in a moderate condition, about 5:30pm on Thursday.
A Pure Salt Charters spokesperson said it was presumed a great white shark was responsible for the attack, although they were rarely in the area.
The diver was bitten on the calf, and he and a dive buddy saw the shark clearly after the bite, and described it as a great white, Pure Salt Charters' Maria Kuster told the NZ Herald: "It was one bite and let go."
Last month, DOC said footage from underwater video sites set up in Fiordland's Tamatea/Dusky Sound to monitor species diversity and numbers had captured many shark species, and the team had been surprised to see a great white among them.
"While reviewing the videos, I saw a mature male white pointer shark (great white sharks are also called white pointer sharks) turn up to the BRUV [Baited Remote Underwater Video] - it was quite a shock!
"We had been laughing about how cool it would be to see something like that. It's very rare to get such great footage," Sea Through Science researcher Adam Smith said.
DOC said that in the footage, the shark appeared curious, headed straight to the video unit, mouthed the bait pot a couple of times then slowly swam away.
"It's great to see these majestic creatures in their natural environment and to see how curious they are around the BRUVs," Smith said. "We've only seen a white shark once before during our surveys, at the Kermadec Islands, the other end of New Zealand."
The region was also known to be home to inshore broadnose sevengill sharks, the DOC Facebook page said.
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