Killer shark scare

Lifeguard Rob Howes is used to saving lives - but the flipper was on the other foot when dolphins came to his rescue off Northland's east coast.
Mr Howes, his daughter Niccy, 15, Karina Cooper and Helen Slade were swimming 100 metres out to sea at Ocean Beach when dolphins herded the swimmers together - apparently to protect the humans from a three-metre great white shark.
The group spent the next 40 minutes in the water surrounded by the dolphins before they could make it back to shore.
The swimmers - from Whangarei Heads Surf Lifesaving Club - had been on a training swim when a pod of seven dolphins emerged.
"They were absolutely steaming in toward us, which is normal, they may surf a few waves or hang around for a while and then they disappear," Mr Howes said.
However, what happened next astounded the veteran lifeguard.
"They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," he said.
Mr Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back.
He saw why - a three-metre-long great white shark was cruising toward the group about two metres below the surface before it veered away.
"I just recoiled. It was only about two metres away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face," he said.
When he saw the shark, Mr Howes realised what the dolphins were doing.
"They had corralled us up to protect us," he said.
Mr Howes kept calm and did not tell the other three swimmers.
Lifeguard Matt Fleet had been patrolling out from the surf beach in an Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) nearby and saw the dolphins' unusual behaviour.
He dived out of the IRB to join the group and also saw the great white.
Mr Fleet said the water had been clear and he had got a good view.
"Some of the people later on the beach tried to tell me it was just another dolphin but I knew what I saw," he said.
Mr Fleet was keen to get out of the water after the sighting, but did not panic.
"I just kept looking around to see where it was."
The incident happened about 1.30pm on October 30.
Mr Howes and Mr Fleet said they had initially kept the story to themselves until they had a chance to catch up and confirm what they had seen.
Miss Cooper said she had been thankful she was not aware of the shark while she was in the water.
"When I was told later on about the shark I just thought, `oh my God'," Miss Cooper said.
Miss Cooper, 15, said the dolphins' behaviour was "really weird". "They just started circling us and banging their tails on the water, it freaked me out.
"They were definitely trying to protect us and they did a good job," she said.
Auckland University marine mammal research scientist Doctor Rochelle Constantine said dolphins were normally vigilant in the presence of sharks.
The altruistic response of the dolphins was normal, she said.
"They like to help the helpless."
Dolphins could be considered to be the good Samaritans of the sea.
The slapping of their tails on the water was the dolphins' way of communicating and could have been a grouping function to bring them all together, Dr Constantine said.
Ingrid Visser, who has been studying marine mammals for 14 years, said there had been reports from around the world of dolphins protecting swimmers.
"They (the dolphins) could have sensed the danger to the swimmers and taken action to protect them," she said.
Miss Visser, of Orca Research, said dolphins would attack sharks to protect themselves and their young.
Mr Howes said it was not uncommon for sharks to be sighted off the beach.
"I don't want to put people off coming to the beach. It was the behaviour of the dolphins on the day that was so out of the ordinary," Mr Howes said.
Sharks moving into shallow waters was a seasonal occurrence during spring and early summer, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientist Malcolm Francis said.
Sharks often searched for fish along surf beaches, Mr Francis said. "Sharks are in New Zealand waters all year round," he said.