Lydia Ward may be put off the beach after she was attacked by a shark in waist-deep water last night, but an expert says most sharks are totally harmless and beachgoers have nothing to fear.
Lydia (14) was body boarding at Oreti Beach, near Invercargill, about 6.30pm when the shark attacked, wrapping its jaws around her hip.
She reacted by furiously whacking the shark on the head with her body board until it let her go.
Lydia thought she had stood on the shark and tried to move away, but stood on it again, she said.
"I didn't feel anything ... then I saw some blood in the water," she told the Southland Times.
Her brother, who was swimming next to her, estimated the shark was about 1.5m long.
Lydia was treated for her wounds at home but was later taken to Southland Hospital to get the deeper of two wounds examined.
"It's sort of put me off the beach," she said.
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research shark expert Malcolm Francis said sharks swam close to the shore "all the time" during summer, taking to the shallows to feed on schooling bait fish or give birth to pups.
However, most sharks in New Zealand were "small and totally harmless".
"Most species have never bitten a human in their history, so just enjoy the fact that you're seeing an amazing graceful animal in its natural habitat," he said.
"It's unusual if we have more than four or five incidents over the course of a year, and most of those aren't even attacks."
Lydia was likely bitten by a seven-gill shark, which are fairly common in the colder waters of Southland, he said.
"They're a bit like dogs in that they'll sniff around, they'll come close. They're usually slow and methodical, not fast and aggressive, but they are persistent."
Anyone confronted by a big or aggressive shark should get out of the water as quickly as possible without splashing, and try to maintain eye contact.
If attacked, pounding the shark's head was the most effective deterrent, Mr Francis said.
"It's most sensitive spots are its gills and its eyes. They have a very sensitive snout as well, because they've got a lot of nerve-endings and sense organs there."
A woman attacked by a seven-gill shark at Oreti Beach ten years ago received about 60 stitches.
