Clarke Gayford,the partner of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and the host of a popular fishing show in the country, has revealed via twitter that he just fought of a shark using a pole as a dolphin swam nearby.
The photo, with useful text references, by Gayford, also known as the “First Bloke” of New Zealand, shows him fending off the shark while diving off Auckland
During the confrontation, dolphins swam nearby and in the background. In his tweet, Gayford says he always thought dolphins would come to his rescue.
So it turns out that not only do dolphins not help, they actually quite like watching,” he tweeted. “A childhood myth is ruined.”
Gayford hosts a television fishing show and said he was helping a camera operator shoot footage for an educational show when the shark came close.
So it turns out that not only do Dolphins not help, they actually quite like watching.
A childhood myth is ruined. pic.twitter.com/yWZPeD9fGJ— Clarke Gayford (@NZClarke) May 16, 2018
He said he was “swimming safety”, or keeping watch so the cameraman could concentrate on filming bottle-nosed dolphins and false killer whales off Great Barrier Island near Auckland.
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,” Gayford told AFP.
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 is not Gayford’s only recent encounter with a shark.
In March, he tweeted a picture of himself with “an overly amorous whale shark” that he said accidentally pinned him against a boat.
On any other day landing a 40kg Yellowfin Tuna would be the days peak. But getting accidently rolled and pinned against a boat today by an overly amorous Whale Shark mic-drops that. pic.twitter.com/XaJUa84Egr
— Clarke Gayford (@NZClarke) March 8, 2018