KEY POINTS:
A Hastings man says a shark trying to snack on his leg won't stop him heading back to his favourite swimming spot.
Greg Sims, 49, was swimming near the Tukituki River mouth at Haumoana, near Hastings, on Tuesday when he felt a sharp bite on the back of his leg.
"(I) couldn't leave the surf fast enough," he told Hawke's Bay Today.
Mr Sims, a registered nurse, fashioned a tourniquet from his towel and headed to hospital.
Having swum at the spot for 40 years without incident , the encounter was not enough to scare him off, he said.
"What are the chances of it happening twice?"
Department of Conservation scientist and shark expert Clinton Duffy told the newspaper the most likely culprit was a broadnose sevengill shark.
"This is a common large coastal shark species, which is most abundant near shore at this time of year."
- NZPA
