Overview
- A marine animal bit Australian photographer Ed Sloane during the men's semifinal in Raglan, New Zealand, leaving him with bite wounds to his left foot and a lost swim fin.
- Organizers triggered the World Surf League's Code Red safety protocol for the first time and suspended competition while medical teams and water rescue crews responded.
- The event doctor said the injury pattern favored a sea lion but the WSL has not definitively identified the attacking animal.
- After several hours the contest resumed with extra jetskis and drones deployed for water surveillance, and Italo Ferreira won the interrupted heat to move into the Championship Tour lead.
- The Code Red protocol was introduced after Mick Fanning's shark encounter about eleven years ago, and this incident put those risk-management procedures into real-time use.