A 54-year old Norwegian tourist was attacked and bitten by a shark while swimming along one of Hua Hin’s highly praised beaches, according to AEC News.
On April 15th a video surfaced on Facebook showing the Norwegian tourist, later identified by local media reports as Werner Daniels, bleeding badly from an open wound in his leg. He is being carried alongside Sai Noi Beach in Prachuap Khirikhan to a doctor by a group of people before being loaded into a pick-up truck and driven to the hospital.
Naturally this put the local authorities in damage control after it was confirmed to be a shark bite, possibly from a bull shark. Not only are they planning to erect signs in Thai, English and Chinese, installing a floating safety net to protect swimmers and assigning extra police to watch the situation on the beaches, but a high-ranking delegation also paid a (PR) visit to Werner Daniels in the hospital.
Leading the delegation were deputy Prajuab Khirikhan and governor Chotnarin Kertsom. They informed Werner Daniels that the local theory is that the bull shark mistook his leg for food in the murky waters, thereby deciding to take a bite.
Governor Chotnarin Kertsom adviced any tourist swimming in the waters of Hua Hin to avoid wearing clothes with colors reassembling those of the shark’s usual food, the local fish, more specifically red or orange. A quick look at the video below will reveal that Werner Daniels wore none of those colors.
14 types of sharks are often found in Thai waters, including the blacktip and whitetip reef shark, grey reef sharks, zebra sharks, nurse sharks, whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, and tiger sharks.
Shark attacks are very rare in the country and seldom more serious than some stiches. However a German tourist was killed in 2013 after a shark bit into the main artery at Tharn Sadet Bay, off a small island near Surat Thani Province.
Werner Daniels on the other hand is quite fine. As he told local media, “no shark is going to stop me.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=240&v=kYwsByfqEps
