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New Zealand's 'First Bloke' Clarke Gayford fends off angry shark and explodes dolphin myth
New Zealand's "first bloke" Clarke Gayford has revealed how he battled an angry shark while filming on a recent diving trip.
Gayford, partner of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, was diving off Auckland on the country’s North Island when he encountered a large bronze whaler shark.
The 40-year-old broadcaster, who presents TV fishing show Catch of the Day, tweeted a photo showing him fighting off the predator with a pole, as a dolphin watched on in the background.
He joked “a childhood myth is ruined” after the dolphin failed to come to his assistance, highlighting their centuries-long reputation for protecting humans in trouble at sea.
“So it turns out that not only do dolphins not help, they actually quite like watching,” he posted on 16 May.
Gayford told AFP he was helping a cameraman film bottle-nosed dolphins and false killer whales off Great Barrier Island when the shark became aggressive.
“They were feeding on kingfish and had been tearing some large ones in half and putting blood in the water, which attracted several large bronze whaler sharks,” he said.
“I got in the water and they turned their attention on me, I had to fend the large one pictured off with a pole several times, as it was getting quite agitated.
“We got out not long after.”
It’s not Gayford’s first encounter with an underwater predator, having been “accidentally rolled and pinned” against a boat by an “overly amorous whale shark” in March.
With Ardern expecting a baby in June, Gayford will become a stay-at-home dad when she returns to running the country after six weeks maternity leave.
Gayford revealed in an interview with The Telegraph last month how he had asked everyone from the royals to the Obamas for baby advice on recent overseas visits.
“I’d far rather ask for baby tips than discuss the weather,” he said. “I can’t reveal what they said, but it’s all good common-sense stuff.”
Despite fatherhood on the horizon, Gayford hopes he’ll still be able to make some time for his fishing adventures.
“Luckily we have two sets of grandparents who are very keen to help,” he said.
Dolphins, known for their high level of intelligence, have been credited with assisting humans from shark attacks in the past.
In 2014, British swimmer Adam Walker recalled how he was protected by a pod of dolphins as a shark swam towards him in New Zealand’s Cook Strait between the North and South islands.
A group of swimmers recalled a similar incident in 2004, when a pod of dolphins surrounded them for 40 minutes after a 10ft shark approached them.
Actor Dick Van Dyke, who has starred in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, famously claimed in 2010 he was saved by a school of porpoises after he fell asleep on a surfboard.
“I woke up out of sight of land ... and I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought, 'I'm dead!'”, he said
“They turned out to be porpoises [and] they pushed me all the way to shore. I'm not kidding.”