{"id":502036,"date":"2026-05-25T16:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/502036\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T16:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:37:14","slug":"raglan-finals-day-halted-as-mystery-sea-creature-attacks-water-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/502036\/","title":{"rendered":"Raglan Finals Day Halted As Mystery Sea Creature Attacks Water Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Men\u2019s second semifinal of the New Zealand Pro at Manu Bay was swiftly put on hold this morning after a sizable sea creature decided to sink its teeth into revered water photographer Ed Sloane\u2019s ankle.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ed\u2019s splashes and quick leap onto the ski drew the attention of\u00a0the organisers who sounded the horn. <\/p>\n<p>Reports from a paramedic at the scene said Ed had puncture marks on his ankle and his flipper was ripped off. He was later taken to hospital by ambulance, but is reportedly in stable condition. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/VI0gf16.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-427193\"  \/>Ed Sloane spends most of his time with his legs dangling in the open ocean. Fortunately it sounds like he\u2019s gonna be just fine. <\/p>\n<p>Lifeguards at the event said: \u201cIt could have been a seal, or a soft-mouthed shark,\u201d referring to a less Jaws-like species such as the Sevengill, which is common around New Zealand\u2019s North Island. The seal commentary is likely wishful thinking as no seal had been spotted in the bay since yesterday, and the New Zealand fur seal\u2019s average breath-hold is just short of 2-minutes.<\/p>\n<p>A veteran WSL water photographer, Ed would\u2019ve been relieved when he found out the J-Bay event was moving to the supposedly less-sharky waters of Raglan, but this comfort was quickly dispelled.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Sawyer-Lindblad_26Raglan_ESS_8329_Ed-Sloane-2048x1365-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-427197\"  \/>Ed shot from land yesterday evening. Bet he\u2019s wishing he drew the dry straw again today. Photo: Sloane\/WSL<\/p>\n<p>A group of hardcore Manu Bay groms were quick to seize the opportunity, jumping into the water shortly after the attack, but were quickly removed. <\/p>\n<p>The last reported shark attack at Manu Bay was in 2006, when 10-year-old Elliot Paerata-Reid was bitten on the foot by a shark whose description also matched the features of a Sevengill. Given the Sevengill shark can live for up to 30 years, this could just be Manu Bay\u2019s heaviest local.<\/p>\n<p>The next call is at 12:00pm local time. <\/p>\n<p>Get well soon, Sloaney. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Men\u2019s second semifinal of the New Zealand Pro at Manu Bay was swiftly put on hold this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[18,19,17,218182,133,34995,461,218183],"class_list":["post-502036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-new-zealand-pro","tag-science","tag-shark-attack","tag-wildlife","tag-wsl-shark-attack"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116636198912390006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}