Shark attack victim stitches himself up 
 
 A medical degree came in handy for one Southland junior doctor after he was attacked by a shark while fishing. 
 
 James Grant fought off what's believed to be a sevengill shark, and stitched himself up before his mates took him to hospital. 
 
 Every fisherman has a story about "the one that got away", but Dr Grant his happy he did. 
 
 "[I felt] something tugging on my leg, and I thought it might have been one of my dive buddies," he says. "I turned around and I saw a big silver face looking at me and a big body trailing off behind." 
 
 Dr Grant was with friends near Cosy Nook on the southern coast, and thinks the hungry shark was attracted by blood from a fish he had just speared. So he attacked the shark. 
 
 "All I went to do was stab it as many times as I could really, and eventually it let go," he says. 
 
 Dr Grant, a junior doctor, scrambled to shore, grabbing a first-aid kit he kept for pig hunting. Then without thinking, he stitched himself up on the beach. 
 
 "I think I must have been pretty adrenalised at the time, because I couldn't really feel it." 
 
 His friends ventured ashore and with blood dripping down his leg, took Dr Grant to the nearby Colac Bay pub for a check-up. 
 
 "We gave him a pint of beer and his mates were kicking around, laughing," says Colac Bay Tavern co-owner Warren Bevin. "Then we brought out the big first-aid kit and got a little bandage out. There were a couple of good holes on both sides of his leg." 
 
 Dr Grant's thick neoprene wetsuit stopped the shark's razor-sharp teeth from doing more serious damage. 
 
 His colleagues at Southland Hospital later gave his leg a proper stitch-up, ensuring he'll have a tidy scar and a good fishy tale to tell. 
 
 3 News ||||| Shark attack doctor stitches own leg LOUISE BERWICK AND LAUREN HAYES 
 
 NICOLE GOURLEY/Fairfax NZ BITE FRIGHT: Junior doctor James Grant inspects the wetsuit he was wearing when he was attacked by a shark on Saturday. Relevant offers 
 
 James Grant had barely caught his first fish when a shark plunged its teeth into his leg. 
 
 He had just entered the water at Garden Bay near Cosy Nook in Southland on Saturday when the next thing he knew a shark was wrapping its jaws around his leg. 
 
 And he's got the holes in his wet suit and his leg to prove it. 
 
 "It was pretty well latched on, I was just trying to get it off." 
 
 But Mr Grant, 24, a junior doctor, gave as good as he got - stabbing what he believed was a type of seven-gill shark, with his diving knife as he tried to get it to unlatch. 
 
 "I sort of just fought the shark off. The shark got a few stabs. The knife wasn't long enough though," he said. 
 
 When Mr Grant managed to get rid of the shark he tried to get the attention of his three friends, who were spearfishing just around the bay. But his mates did not take him seriously. 
 
 "I thought surely he hasn't been bitten, there's no way he has been bitten, he's got to be taking the p...," Mackley Lindsay said. 
 
 But he wasn't, instead he sat on the shore stitching his own leg. 
 
 His friends carried on fishing while Mr Grant tacked the wounds together with a needle and thread from his first-aid kit for his pig-hunting dogs. 
 
 "I'm pretty happy I had such a thick wet suit on too," he said. 
 
 Friend Jim Robins downplayed the event at the time. "He was walking so it couldn't have been that bad," he said. 
 
 However, his friends did do him a favour - taking him to the tavern in Colac Bay before the hospital. 
 
 The pub at Colac Bay served him a beer alongside a few bandages to stop his leg from dripping blood on the carpet. 
 
 "It would have been great if I had killed it because there was a fishing competition on at the Colac Bay Tavern," Mr Grant said. He received "a bit of banter" from his colleagues at Southland Hospital while they stitched him up. 
 
 "I am pretty grateful to have my leg still." 
 
 The experience had not deterred him. "When the stitches come out I will be back in the water." 
 
 Department of Conservation technical officer marine and shark specialist Clinton Duffy said, although it was difficult to tell without an accurate description, he believed the attacker was probably a broadnosed seven-gill shark. 
 
 Seven-gill sharks grew up to 3 metres long, and New Zealand was one of a few countries where they attacked humans. However, attacks by the seven-gill were relatively common around the Southland and Otago coast. 
 
 SURVIVAL TIPS 
 
 How to avoid shark attacks: Treat any shark longer than 1.5 metres as dangerous, and leave the water quickly and quietly. 
 
 Avoid swimming at dawn, dusk or at night. Sharks do most of their feeding at night. 
 
 Don't swim where seagulls or dolphins are feeding, where there are shoals of fish, where people are fishing or gutting their catch, or where there are deeper tidal channels – these all could attract sharks. 
 
 Source: Clinton Duffy 
 
 - Fairfax Media
– When a New Zealand man felt something odd on his leg while spearfishing, he assumed it was one of his buddies. "I looked behind to see who it was and got a bit of a shock," James Grant, a 24-year-old doctor, tells Radio New Zealand. It was, apparently, a seven-gill shark—which can grow to almost 10 feet, an expert tells Stuff.co.nz. Though he couldn't see it, he guessed its jaw spanned about 8 inches. His next thought: "Bugger, now I have to try and get this thing off my leg." Grant stabbed at it using a knife already in his hand, the Guardian reports. "Put a few nicks in it," he says. After getting out of the water, he discovered bite marks about 2 inches long. Fortunately, he had a first aid kit handy, so he sewed himself up before heading to the pub. There, he got a beer—and a bandage so he didn't bleed all over the floor. He later got "proper" stitches from colleagues, 3 News reports. Yesterday, he was back at work. The biggest downside: "It would have been great if I had killed it because there was a fishing competition on" at the pub, Grant tells Stuff.