KEY POINTS:
Sid Mace, 12, was swimming when he heard the yells coming from the boat.
"Mad panic" broke out when a 300kg bottlenose dolphin jumped on to a boat, critically injuring a woman, her partner said yesterday.
Dion Lawson said Kelly James was struck in the chest and fell back, a male friend was thrown out of the boat and he and a female friend were knocked backwards.
Mr Lawson and Ms James were with three others on board a friend's boat about 500m off Slipper Island when the freak event happened.
Ms James, 27, of Pukekohe, was in a serious but stable condition in Auckland City Hospital yesterday.
"We were just cruising along when they [dolphins] started to jump," Mr Lawson said. "They were just playing and jumping."
The couple had been in Pauanui for the Christmas break, catching up with friends and "just doing the normal Coromandel thing".
Ms James, who likes to get out on the water "any chance she can get", was sitting on the bow of the boat when one of the dolphins leaped into the air about 5m away.
Mr Lawson said the dolphin "pretty much had nowhere to go" and landed on the boat, striking Ms James in the chest.
"Kelly just fell back, basically" and the "mad panic" ensued.
One witness estimated the mammal to have been about 300kg. Mature bottlenose dolphins generally measure about 2.5m to 3.5m and, in some parts of the world, can weigh up to 650kg.
Ms James suffered a heart attack before being flown to Auckland and did not fully regain consciousness during the flight.
Her parents arrived in Auckland yesterday from their home in Noosa, on Australia's Sunshine Coast, to be at her bedside.
Mr Lawson refused to talk about Ms James' injuries or condition, but described her as a "very active, very funny person".
"She has lots and lots of friends, all who have been wishing her the best."
He believed Ms James would be back in the water as soon as possible and was not likely to be put off from going to sea again.
The accident has prompted a warning from Conservation Department marine mammal ranger Kirsty Russell, who says humans can underestimate dolphins.
"People have associated a mystique to the animals that they are friendly and want to interact with people. Sometimes they do ... but they are wild animals."
Ms Russell said although humans liked to get "very, very close" to dolphins in the wild, it was important to remember "they are out doing their thing ... we are interfering with them.
"Every time we go near them, we are disturbing them."
Otago University marine mammal biologist Steve Dawson, who described Tuesday's accident as extremely unusual, said the dolphin's actions were most likely the result of a "miscalculation" on its part, but the accident was a reminder to humans to watch out for the animals in the wild.
In areas such as the Bay of Islands, dozens of boats would descend on dolphin pods, causing them distress.
"Those animals have simply got no chance. Just because a few animals interact doesn't mean the whole group is enjoying the experience."
Dr Dawson said he had heard of two similar incidents.
One was off Kaikoura, where a dolphin leaped on to the foredeck of a commercial craft.
The second incodent happened in Hawaii, where a humpback whale landed on the bow of a 6m craft, smashing the vessel in half.
Both incidents were examples of creature miscalculation but did not involve injuries to humans.
Campers at Slipper Island's South Bay, who had seen the dolphins only seconds before the incident, heard the crash of the dolphin hitting the deck and shattering the cabin windscreen.
"There were so many of them we couldn't help notice. They were leaping and we were yelling to the kids to turn around and look at the dolphins because it was a once-in-a-lifetime sight," a camper said.
Sid Mace, 12, was swimming in the bay and heard the yells.
"I turned around in the water and I saw someone fall off [the boat]."
Other vessels quickly converged on the damaged runabout and the injured woman was taken to shore and surrounded by emergency workers and other people.
Yesterday afternoon, dolphins were swimming between South Bay and Home Bay, mostly concentrating on feeding.
"They're working the fish into the corner of the bay," said Gordon Needham, whose family owns Slipper Island.
He said they were likely to be the same dolphins from the previous day because pods usually stayed in the area for a week or two. "Everybody's just absolutely amazed that something like this could happen," he said.
Mr Needham and the rescue crew arrived at South Bay 10 minutes after an emergency call came from the damaged boat.
Steve Morgan, skipper of the Lockwood rescue vessel, said Ms James "wasn't bleeding at all, but she had major internal injuries".
"Our focus was totally around her and what care we could give her.
"The information we have is that they [the people with her on the runabout] weren't doing anything stupid.
"The boat was almost stationary. The dolphins had swum to the boat rather than the boat coming to the dolphins," Mr Morgan said.
He did not believe the dolphin that jumped aboard was injured, saying it would have been on the boat for "all of five seconds" and there were no sharp edges on the bow for it to cut itself.
Donna Earley from Tairua Dive and Fishinn said the incident had not deterred people from taking to the water.
Rules around dolphins
* No more than three boats within 300m of the pod.
* Travel at a no-wash speed - generally below 5 knots.
* Approach from the rear and a little to the side.
* Never cut through a pod.
Department of Conservation
- Additional reporting Juliet Rowan
