This is the terrifying moment a kayaker has to use his paddle to scare away a shark on a Spanish holiday island.
The man decided to act after seeing the fish begin to surround and approach him while he was enjoying a day outdoors in La Palma, in the Canary Islands.
The shark was identified as a hammerhead, the same type that most experts believe could have been responsible for attacking a German woman on a British-flagged catamaran on Monday who died while being airlifted to a hospital in Gran Canaria.
The latest incident occurred off the coast of Tazacorte, a town and municipality in the west of the island of La Palma, considered to have the most spectacular landscape in the Canary Islands.
The athlete at the centre of the drama could be heard telling the shark: “Bas***d, get away” as he tried to hit it with his paddle as its telltale fin came ever closer and he began to worry it was trying to tip over his kayak.
The neighbour decided to act after seeing the fish beginning to surround him and approach him while he was enjoying a day outdoors in La Palma, in the Canary Islands. The shark was identified as a hammerhead shark, the same type that most experts believe could have been responsible for last Monday’s attack on a German woman on board a British-flagged catamaran who died while being transferred by helicopter to a hospital in Gran Canaria.
The athlete at the centre of the drama could be heard telling the shark: “Bas***d, get away” as he tried to hit it with his paddle as its telltale fin came ever closer and he began to worry it was trying to tip over his kayak.
Social media users have attempted to downplay the incident by insisting hammerheads are not normally aggressive towards humans, even though the species has been linked to last Monday’s incident involving a 30-year-old German man travelling on a pleasure boat called the Dalliance Chichester.
She suffered a fatal cardiac arrest in a Spanish Air Force helicopter that was taking her to hospital after her leg was bitten off.
The incident occurred when the catamaran was in international waters 278 miles southwest of Gran Canaria airport and about 110 miles east of the city of Dakhla, in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, currently occupied by Morocco.
The unnamed victim was declared dead on arrival at Doctor Negrín Hospital in Gran Canaria’s capital Las Palmas shortly after 11pm on Monday.
A city court has opened a routine investigation.
Judicial sources confirmed that it was an accident, but no witnesses have been called to testify, with one saying: “Investigations have been opened as with any accidental death. No one has yet been questioned and there are no immediate plans to question anyone.”
Initial reports suggested the victim was swimming in the ocean at the time, although a Gran Canaria newspaper later reported that he had been fishing with meat as bait and had one leg in the water.
In June, tourist beaches on the east coast of Gran Canaria were closed following shark sightings.
Local police later confirmed via drone that one of the sharks spotted was a 3-metre-long hammerhead shark.
Most hammerhead shark species are considered harmless to humans and few attacks have been recorded, but they are aggressive hunters and their size and ferocity make them potentially harmless.
They can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 1,000 pounds.
Experts who analysed Monday’s deadly shark attack have ruled out the possibility that it was a blue shark or a shark, like those seen every summer on the beaches of mainland Spain.
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